Cognitive Functioning, Gender, and Marital Quality Among Older Married Couples: A Dyadic Approach

ABSTRACT

This study examines associations of older husbands’ and wives’ cognitive functioning with both partners’ marital quality. Generalized structural equation modeling analyzed data from 1,432 opposite-sex couples drawn from the 2016 wave of the Health and Retirement Study. Findings revealed that wives’ poorer cognitive functioning was associated with wives reporting greater closeness and enjoyment of time with a spouse, whereas husbands’ poorer cognitive functioning was associated with wives reporting greater marital strain, lower marital support, lower closeness, and less enjoyment of time with a spouse. This suggests that cognitive functioning has dyadic consequences for marital quality, which are highly gendered.

KEYWORDS:

• Dyadic
• cognitive functioning
• marital quality
• actor partner interdependence model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.