The predominant view in both the research literature and practice is that marital quality declines over time. Although the majority of research using variable‐centered approaches such as latent growth curve modeling supports this view, contemporary research using person‐centered group‐based trajectory modeling techniques suggest a variety of trajectories of marital quality development, including stability, decline, and, occasionally, rebound following decline. The present review synthesizes this current body of research and summarizes the variety of trajectories found across 14 reports examining both positive and negative marital quality dimensions. The theories informing this body of research and the predictors of the various trajectories are also reviewed. We conclude with a discussion of methodological and practical implications of the findings to date and introduce the honeymoon‐as‐ceiling effect, a phrase we use to capture the consistent finding that marital quality rarely increases beyond its initial value.

Volunteering is a productive activity that is beneficial not just to society, but to volunteers' levels of cognitive functioning in older age. For women and those with lower levels of education, formal volunteering appears particularly beneficial to working memory and processing.

The present study investigates the association between social connectedness (i.e., social network characteristics, family and friend support, and social ties with neighbors), emotional well-being, and self-rated health and whether these associations differ based on respondents' relationship status among adults aged 62 and older. A series of multigroup generalized structural equation models (GSEMs) were conducted using data from the National Social, Health, and Aging Project. Social connectedness items were mostly positively associated with emotional well-being and self-rated health, and several of these associations are stronger for older adults who are unpartnered versus those who are cohabiting or married. Cohabiting and married individuals do not appear to have the same associations between social

The present study takes a dyadic approach to examine how social connectedness (i.e., neighborhood support, family and friend support, and social network characteristics) is associated with husbands’ and wives’ well-being during older adulthood. Participants included married couples ( N = 832) from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project, a national probability sample of older adults aged 57 and older. Using a series of actor–partner interdependence models, we found that wives’ and husbands’ closeness with their own social network, family support, and neighborhood social ties were all significantly associated with emotional well-being, and closeness to one’s social network was associated with self-rated health. Friend support was associated with emotional well-being only for women, while family support was associated with self-rated health for men only. Four partner effects emerged, with husbands’ friendship support being positively associated with wives’ self-rated health, husbands’ greater talk frequency with his social network being associated with wives’ lower emotional well-being, wives’ greater talk frequency with her social network being associated with husbands’ lower self-rated health, and wives’ closeness to their social network being positively associated with husbands’ self-rated health. The present study has implications for programming and the role of social connectedness beyond marriage.

In this mixed methods study, we explored how gender of an aggressor and the levels of aggression (i.e., yelling, throwing a drink, slapping, and punching) influenced attitudes about (a) public displays of intimate partner violence (IPV) and (b) bystander intervention. A feminist-informed, social constructionist perspective guided the study. Participants ( N = 562) responded online to randomly assigned factorial vignettes. Participants ranged in age between 18 and 70 years. The majority were female, self-identified as heterosexual, and identified as White. Logistic regressions revealed that participants significantly viewed aggression as unacceptable, especially in cases of more severe and male-perpetrated aggressions. Multinomial logistic regressions revealed that participants significantly thought bystanders or friends of the couple should intervene, especially in cases of male-perpetrated and/or more severe aggression. Analyses of qualitative responses indicated that participants viewed aggression as never okay, as poor communication, as justified if provoked, and discussed the gendered double standard of aggression (i.e., men should not be aggressive because they could cause more harm than females and female-perpetrated aggression is minor, in comparison). Regarding attitudes about bystander intervention, analyses of qualitative responses indicated that aggression severity, issues surrounding relationship privacy, factors relevant to the situation (e.g., if the event occurred once or repeatedly), perceptions that help was needed (e.g., if the victim was hurt), and the bystander's relationship with the victim (i.e., friend or not) were important to consider when thinking about the decision to intervene in public acts of violence. These findings have implications for bystander intervention programs and for how individuals view public acts of IPV.