Marital support, psychological distress, and disability among community-dwelling older couples: A longitudinal study

Little is known about the relationship between marital support, psychological distress and disability among older couples. Overall, it appears that functional status (the presence or absence of disability) has a major effect on psychological distress. The aim of this study is to explore longitudinally the relationship between functional status, marital support and psychological distress. This study was carried out over a period of 18 months using a representative sample of 394 community-dwelling couples, aged 65 and over. The following instruments were used: the Perceived Supportive Spouse Behaviors Questionnaire, the Index of Psychological Distress and a structured interview designed to measure disability. A dyadic longitudinal design was used to test the mediating effect of marital support on the relationship between disability and psychological distress in older couples. Dyadic data analyses with structural equation modeling were performed. The results indicate that neither positive nor negative marital support has any mediating effect on the relationship between functional status and psychological distress. However, it also indicates that negative marital support of men and women is related to their level of psychological distress. Moreover, both men and women react to even a slight decrease in their functional autonomy with an increase in psychological distress.