Meditation, Marital Adjustment, and Relationship Quality among Heterosexual Couples Who Remarry in Late-Life

Abstract

This article reports a study on the impact of an online meditation program on marital adjustment and relationship quality of older remarried couples. Meditation was effective and better marital adjustment post-test was reported by remarried partners who were highly educated, living as a couple alone, with no dependents, widowed prior to remarriage, and who regularly attended the online meditation lessons and self-practiced. Further better relationship quality was reported by highly qualified participants, Hindus, who lived alone with their partners, widowed women who remarried, and participants who diligently adhered to the intervention. There was concordance in relationship quality scores of both older remarried partners. Intervention adherence mediated the relationship between demographic variables and outcomes. The online meditation program is an effective psychoeducational intervention for late-life remarried couples with some refinements for the less educated, divorced prior to remarriage, living with other family members and dependents in addition to the remarriage partner.

Keywords:

• Late-life heterosexual couples
• late-life re-partnering
• online meditation program
• marital adjustment
• relationship quality