View article

We investigated associations between positive marital quality and health among married persons aged 50 or older and their spouses. Prior research using data from married individuals has yielded inconsistent findings regarding the association between positive marital quality and global health outcomes. The present study involved married couples to examine how spouses’ positive marital quality affect their own and each other’s health, and whether these effects vary by age.

Using data from 3 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (2006, 2008, 2010), we estimated a series of actor–partner interdependence models using mixed linear models.

Analyses found that over the 4-year period (2006–2010) increases in positive marital quality of both spouses were independently …