The Magnifying Effect of Marital Satisfaction on the Dyadic Effect of Disabilities on Life Satisfaction

Being Under-Benefited and Perceived Stress in the Relationship Between Aging Parents and Adult Children: The Moderating Role of Empathy

Background and Objectives

Previous studies examining the relationship between being under-benefited and stress among aging parents and their adult children have yielded mixed findings. Few studies have examined whether this positive association can be alleviated by state-level or trait-level factors. Given the positive effects of empathy on interpersonal exchanges, we tested the moderating role of empathy on the relationship between being under-benefited and perceived stress among aging parents and adult children in this 14-day diary study.

Research Design and Methods

A sample of 99 pairs of parents (M age = 50.01 years, SD age = 4.53 years; 79.8% female) and children (M age = 22.38, SD age = 3.49; 85.9% female) were recruited reported their level of being under-benefited in the exchange with their parent/child, perceived stress, and empathy as an affective state on a daily basis for 14 consecutive days, after completing a pretest which measured their trait empathy and demographic information.

Results

For both parents and children, the positive under-benefited-stress association was only significant when they reported lower affective empathy on a daily basis. The association between the level of being under-benefited and stress was negative when children reported greater affective empathy on a daily basis. Children reported more perceived stress on the days their parents reported a greater level of being under-benefited. Such association was only significant in children with lower trait empathy. The negative association between children's being under-benefited and parents' perceived stress was only significant in parents with higher trait empathy.

Discussion and Implications

These findings highlight the importance of empathy as a daily affect and a trait in the relationship between daily exchanges and mental health in the intergenerational contexts between aging parents and adult children.

Negative interactions and marital satisfaction across adulthood: The moderating role of affect valuation

Older adults report higher marital satisfaction than younger adults even after negative interactions. The current study examined affect valuation as a potential moderator to explain age-related differences in the relationship between negative interactions and marital satisfaction. We conducted a 14-day daily diary study among 66 heterosexual couples (132 participants) aged from 21 to 80 years. At both person and daily levels, we found that valuing negative affect weakened the negative association between negative interactions and marital satisfaction in husbands. The moderating effect of negative affect valuation was stronger in older than younger husbands at the person but not daily level. Valuing positive affect more was associated with a stronger negative association between negative interactions and marital satisfaction in husbands at the person but not daily level. Such effect was again stronger in older than younger husbands. No significant results were found in wives. These findings shed light on the importance of affect valuation in understanding age-related differences in marital dynamics.

The effect of marital satisfaction on the self-assessed depression of husbands and wives: investigating the moderating effects of the number of children and neurotic personality

BACKGROUND

Based on the family system theory, there is an interactive relationship in the family, especially the cognitive style and emotional changes of the husband and wife will affect the behavior, cognition and emotion of the partner. Data about the effects of marital relationships on mental health are often paired. Scholars study the effect of individual independent variables on the dependent variables and the effect of spouse independent variables on the dependent variables to explore the actor and partner effect in marital relationships.

METHODS

This study used the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2018 dataset to collect paired data on the marital satisfaction and self-rated mental health of 9,560 couples. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Moderation Model (APIMoM) was used to analyze whether moderator variables affect the direction and strength of the effect of marital satisfaction on self-rated depression. In the robustness test part, the robustness of the APIMoM model was tested by reanalyzing the independent variables using two kinds of  binary codes respectively, and the results showed that the models were robust.

RESULTS

Individuals' marital satisfaction was significantly negatively correlated with their own depression level and with that of their spouse. The number of family members had a positive moderating effect on the results of the wife's partner effect. Couples who lived in the environment with more family members had lower depression scores. Couples who have more children have higher depression scores. The number of children has a negative moderating effect on the results of partner effect of husbands and wives. The wife's neurotic personality score has a negative moderating effect on the wife's actor effect.

CONCLUSIONS

In terms of measures to prevent depression, women's mental health should be given more priority than men's. Living in a larger family with more children is beneficial for couples' mental health. Efforts to prevent depression in couples should take into account the neurotic character of the members, especially the wife, and design special treatment and preventive measures accordingly. These findings highlight that binary dynamics should be considered in exploring what factors influence the mental health of married couples.