By Carol Church, Writer, Family Album
Reviewed by Martie Gillen, PhD, Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, University of Florida
Do you know any older couples with amazing marriages? I think we’ve all met a few of these lucky folks. On the other hand, many of us also may also know some older married people who don’t seem too contented in their long-term partnerships. While there are certainly many factors involved in whether relationships stay happy or turn a bit sour over the years, one thing researchers do know is that as we age, our physical health—and that of our partner–can really affect how happy we are in our partnerships.
Poor Health = Less Happy Marriages…But Why?
On one level, this may seem pretty obvious. When someone is ill or disabled, stress is likely to increase…and stress is certainly hard on couples. But researchers writing in the Journals of Gerontology suspected the situation might be a bit more complicated than that. To find out, they surveyed about 1400 older adults between the ages of 57-85, asking them about the quality of their marriages, their physical and mental health, and how often they had sexual contact of any kind with their partners.
Sex and Mental Health are Key
Sure enough, they found that people in worse physical health were indeed less contented in their marriages. But when they analyzed the results more closely, they found that sex was actually playing a key role. Poor physical health seemed to lead to infrequent sex. This, in turn, was associated with less marital happiness. What’s more, being in poor health was also linked to poor mental health. This, too, seemed to lead to being less happy in one’s marriage.
These findings highlight the importance of physical health to marriage, underlining how failing health may sabotage partners’ sexual relationship and psychological well-being. They also bring attention to the importance of later-life sex. Even a small amount of sexual activity made a noticeable positive difference to marriages.
While it may be obvious that having someone in poor health is hard on older couples, it’s helpful to learn exactly why this could be. Knowing more about how all these aspects of a marriage work together can help couples live more happily together.
(Photo credit: It’s all about love by Candida Performa. CC BY 2.0. Cropped.)
References:
Galinsky, A.M., & Waite, L.J. (2013). Sexual activity and psychological health as mediators of the relationship between physical health and marital quality. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 69(3), 482–492, doi:10.1093/geronb/gbt165
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