The Marital Life and Aging Well Program: effects of a group preventive intervention on the marital and sexual functioning of retired couples

Abstract

Seniors are living longer and longer past retirement. In this regard, many studies indicate that good marital functioning can considerably enhances quality of life and is a protective factor associated with fewer health problems. Moreover, as people grow old and the social network contracts, one's spouse is the person most likely to provide social support when needed. However, certain studies indicate that retirement can put a strain on marital life. This research focused on recently retired couples wishing to improve their marital and sexual functioning. Participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental group subjected to an intervention or a waiting list subjected to the same intervention at a later time. The intervention consisted of the preventive application with 80 couples of methods normally used in marital and sexual therapy. Participants were French speaking couples living in the Montreal area and mean age was 59.87 for women and 61.64 for men. Results indicate an improvement in marital and sexual functioning on most of the measures used. Though a certain deterioration is observed at 3-month and 1-year follow-up, most of the measures nevertheless indicate an improvement in functioning compared with baseline levels. The study indicates that it is possible to optimize functioning of couples entering retirement.

Keywords:

• couples therapy
• cognitive therapy
• behavior therapy
• female
• male

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche Sociale.