Couple similarity with respect to physical and mental disabilities

AIMS

Existing research on relationships provides strong evidence of couple similarity on a wide range of variables including physical attributes, abilities, and attitudes. However, couple similarity with respect to disability has not been researched. This study investigated couple similarity with respect to both physical and mental disabilities, as well as associations with life satisfaction, among adult cohabiting couples in Denmark.

METHODS

The study analysed data on self-reported mental and physical disabilities from a national survey involving 18,957 participants aged 16 to 65 years.

RESULTS

The results showed that participants with a disability were more likely to have a partner with a disability. Further, results showed similarity by type and severity of disability as well as age of onset of disability. Having a partner with a disability was found to be associated with low life satisfaction among men with a disability. Results also showed an association among men with a disability between low life satisfaction and the onset of their disability after (as opposed to before) the start of their relationship. These associations were not found among women with a disability.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings provide clear evidence for couple similarity with respect to disability. Findings on life satisfaction showed gender differences that might be explained by cultural gender norms that may play a particular role with respect to disability. Longitudinal research is required to research the factors that mediate how having or developing a disability affects relationships and wellbeing over time.

When Holding in Prevents From Reaching Out: Emotion Suppression and Social Support-Seeking in Multicultural Groups

Members of multicultural groups benefit from developing diverse social support networks. Engaging openly with people who have a different worldview (i.e., given by a different cultural background) broadens one's cognitive horizons, facilitates one's adaptation to new contexts, decreases stereotyping and discrimination and generally improves individual and group performance. However, if this social connection is hindered (either by limiting the number of people one reaches out to or in terms of preferring to connect to similar others), then the diversity advantage is lost - both for the individuals and for the groups. Through two case studies of professional groups with varying cultural diversity (moderate and superdiverse), we investigate the evolution of their members' social support networks (i.e., to what extent and to whom they reach out for support) depending on (1) individuals' habitual emotion suppression and (2) cultural orientation on the individualism-collectivism dimension. Results show that individualistic cultures suffer a double-whammy: when suppressing, their members seek less support (i.e., don't reach out so much to ask for support) and tend to seek culturally similar others for it when they do. Suppressing collectivists are less affected in absolute levels of connectedness, but still prefer culturally similar others as sources of support. Our study offers an emotion-based view of why people stick together with similar others in diverse groups and how learning to better cope with emotions can make us more open-minded toward diversity in professional settings.