The current study tested the hypotheses that knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients and spouses who report more spousal understanding of patient's pain would report greater marital satisfaction. A total of 124 couples completed interviews at three time points across 18 months. Results from dyadic analyses showed that patients who felt more understood by their spouse report, and have spouses who report, higher marital satisfaction concurrently. In addition, patients who felt more understood by their spouse reported higher marital satisfaction over time. Spouses' reports of understanding also had a significant influence on the patients' and their own marital satisfaction concurrently. Results highlight the importance of spouses understanding knee OA patients' pain for both dyad members' marital satisfaction.

Objective and Background The current study examines the types of childhood experiences with mothers (i.e., maternal abuse, affection, discipline) among caregivers of aging mothers and investigates whether membership in specific latent classes, particularly maternal maltreatment, is associated with psychological functioning among caregivers. Method Using data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), we used the Bolck, Croon, and Hagenaars approach of latent class analysis to predict distal outcomes. Results We identified four latent classes (prevalence rate noted): “Affectionate and authoritative” (65%), “affectionate and permissive” (11%), “emotionally abusive and neglectful” (8%), and “emotionally/physically abusive and authoritative” (16%). Caregivers in the “emotionally/physically abusive and authoritative” class endorsed high probabilities of both maternal affection and abuse and were most negatively affected across the three psychological functioning outcomes (i.e., self‐rated mental health, psychological distress, and psychological well‐being). Conclusion In support of the life course perspective, our findings emphasized the importance of examining adult children caregivers' early life experiences with aging mothers and how those experiences can impact the psychological effects of caregiving. Implications This study suggests specific practice implications; for example, assessment tools for evaluating caregiver burden should consider life course factors, such as caregivers' childhood experiences with aging parents.

Objectives Seminal research with spouses of chronic pain patients indicates that providing patients with instrumental support can be either costly or beneficial for spouses' well-being. Drawing from the invisible support literature, this study evaluated the extent to which patients' recognition of spouses' support moderated daily and long-term associations between spouses' support provision and negative affect. Method Data came from a sample of spouses (N = 145) of knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients, and the patients themselves. Participants completed a baseline interview, 22 days of daily diaries, and two follow-up interviews 6 and 18 months after baseline. Multilevel models were estimated to test study hypotheses. Results As expected, support visibility moderated daily and long-term associations between spouses' instrumental support provision and negative affect. Spouses reported elevated levels of negative affect in response to providing patients with extra care and attention, but only when their support was not recognized (i.e., reported) by patients. Discussion Findings from the current study pinpoint support visibility as a protective factor that may mitigate negative short- and long-term effects of spousal instrumental support provision on spouses' negative affect. Promoting patients' awareness of their spouses' support may offset negative emotional consequences of caregiving in the context of chronic health stressors.

The initial conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic made it such that individuals—especially older adults—experienced uncertainty about their own health/well-being, as well as that of their loved ones and communities. The current study examined how older adults’ social context shaped their well-being (i.e., anxiety, depressive symptoms, and sleep quality) early in the pandemic. Specifically, we tested whether there were differences in uncertainty, communal coping, and well-being among partnered individuals who indicated that their partner was their primary source of emotional support during the pandemic versus un-partnered individuals who indicated another social tie as their primary source of emotional support. Data were collected between May and August 2020 from 101 older adults (Mage = 80.63, SD = 8.96). Correlational analyses showed that uncertainty about one’s own health/well-being was positively associated with anxiety (p < .05) and communal coping (i.e., viewing the pandemic as a stressful period that will be worked through together) was negatively associated with depressive symptoms (p = .001) and anxiety (p < .01). Results from independent samples t-tests showed that, on average, partnered older adults reported fewer depressive symptoms (p < .05), less uncertainty about their own health/well-being (p < .05), and higher communal coping (p < .001) compared to un-partnered older adults. Unexpectedly, no group differences were found for anxiety or sleep quality. Results suggest the unique benefit of having a partner as an emotional support confidant in the context of the pandemic, perhaps because older adults were largely confined to their homes during lockdown.

Poor physical function has been linked to greater depressive symptoms among older adults. On the other hand, older adults’ perceptions of positive and negative age-related changes provide personal strength and vulnerability to stressful events, respectively. We therefore expected that positive self-perceptions of aging (SPA) would be associated with fewer depressive symptoms, while negative SPA would be related to greater depressive symptoms, beyond the effect of physical function. We further tested the hypotheses that positive SPA would buffer the association between physical function and greater depressive symptoms, whereas negative SPA would exacerbate this association. This study used data from 108 older adults (mean age = 81.09) in independent-living or retirement communities. Results from a linear regression revealed that more positive SPA (B = -0.21, p = .02) and less negative SPA (B = 0.21, p = .06) were associated with fewer depressive symptoms, even after controlling for physical function, both types of SPA, and other covariates. In contrast, physical function was no longer significantly associated with depressive symptoms (B = -0.15, p = .19), after controlling for both types of SPA. There were no significant moderating effects of positive and negative SPA. Findings suggest that how positively and negatively older adults perceive their own aging may be important for their mental health while experiencing less physical function in late life.