As couples adapted to the stressful, pandemic-induced disruptions to daily life (e.g., closures of schools, working from home), many couples experienced changes to established divisions of paid and household labor. The present study investigates whether contributions to household responsibilities and perceptions of fairness in divisions of labor are associated with couple relationship satisfaction and disagreements. Gender, number of children in a family, and financial stress during the pandemic are included as moderators. Four hundred seventy-nine participants (52.8% women; ages 19-72, M age = 34.54) in the United States completed an online survey as part of a larger study on couples coping with COVID-19. Linear mixed models showed that women, compared to men, reported doing more household responsibilities, with a widening gender gap based on the presence and number of children, and reported lower fairness. For women, the association between responsibilities and relationship disagreements increased with greater financial stress. Fairness was related to positive relationship outcomes; however, number of children moderated the strength of this association in different directions for women and men. Financial stress also increased the association between fairness and relationship functioning. Results underscore the importance of how couples manage their everyday household responsibilities and, especially, how their perceptions of fairness affect relationship outcomes. The extent to which these findings generalize beyond the pandemic to family life more generally remains to be determined, but the results suggest that the division of responsibilities and fairness, particularly during times of stress and upheaval, are putatively important and protective relationship elements. Public Significance StatementApproximately 1 year into the COVID-19 pandemic, perceived fairness in the division of household responsibilities had a protective role for couple relationship functioning, particularly for women, couples with children, and couples experiencing financial stress. Although it is yet unknown whether these results extend to other time periods, working toward a division of responsibilities perceived as fair can be a meaningful goal for couple and family therapists, and for couples themselves.

Although several studies have shown small longitudinal associations between baseline loneliness and subsequent dementia risk, studies rarely test whether change in loneliness predicts dementia risk. Furthermore, as both increase with advancing age, genetic and environmental selection processes may confound the putative causal association between loneliness and dementia risk. We used a sample of 2,476 individual twins from three longitudinal twin studies of aging in the Swedish Twin Registry to test the hypothesis that greater positive change in loneliness predicts greater dementia risk. We then used a sample of 1,632 pairs of twins to evaluate the hypothesis that effects of change in loneliness on dementia risk would remain after adjusting for effects of genetic and environmental variance. Phenotypic model results suggest that mild levels of baseline loneliness predict greater dementia risk. Contrary to our hypothesis, change in loneliness did not correlate with dementia risk, regardless of whether genetic and environmental selection confounds were taken into account. Worsening loneliness with age may not confer greater dementia risk.

Objective: This cross-sectional study examined the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) mobility from childhood to adulthood on psychological and cognitive well-being in African American and non-Hispanic White HIV-positive (HIV+) and HIV-seronegative (HIV−) adults who are part of an ongoing study investigating psychosocial and neurobehavioral effects of HIV. Methods: Participants (N = 174, 24.1% female, 59.2% African American, 67.8% HIV+) were categorized into four groups (upward mobility, downward mobility, stable-not-poor, chronic-poverty) based on self-reported childhood and current community SES (which were correlated with objective measures of SES and proxies of childhood SES). SES groups were compared on self-report measures of psychological well-being, subjective executive functioning ratings, and performance across six cognitive domains. Primary analyses were stratified by HIV status. Results: For the HIV+ group, SES mobility was associated with psychological well-being (chronic burden of stress:

Objective: Memory problems are a frequent complaint in neuropsychological settings, particularly among individuals in mid-to-late adulthood and those who have experienced neurological insult (e.g., head trauma; Bay et al., 2012;Lezak et al., 2004;Wammes et al., 2017). Neuropsychiatric comorbidities that influence cognitive functioning (e.g., depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress) are also common among neuropsychological patients, which can challenge interpreting etiology and predicting prognosis (Campbell et al., 2009;Reischies & Neu, 2000). Prolonged trauma exposure is associated with brain abnormalities in regions that subserve memory and executive functions (Daniels et al., 2016;Woon et al., 2010). Furthermore, a subgroup of individuals with trauma exposure experience dissociative symptoms, which can also interfere with memory and performing goal-directed behaviors (Bergouignan et al., 2014;Brewin et al., 2013;Özdemir et al., 2015). Method: In this article, we focus on symptoms that are consistent with dissociation and present three case studies of trauma-exposed women who were referred for neuropsychological testing following complaints of memory decline. Results: Formal neuropsychological testing did not fully support the degree of amnestic symptoms reported. Based upon the complex pattern of results, we propose a potential hypothesis for consideration: the dissociative interference hypothesis. Conclusions: For all three women presented, dissociation was a common symptom that may have contributed to an exacerbation of memory failures and amnestic experiences. Thus, interventions targeted at increasing awareness, rather than withdrawal, during times of stress may lead to a reduction in their memory complaints. Clinical Impact StatementThis article highlights the need for trauma-informed assessment to improve diagnostic accuracy, cognitive test interpretation, and treatment in neuropsychological settings with trauma-exposed patients. We provide real-world clinical examples of discrepancies between objective and subjective memory performance among trauma-exposed women, and propose dissociation as an important-but often overlooked-mechanism. This has potential to inform neuropsychological care by modifying traditional testing procedures.