UNASSIGNED: The authors study matrilineal settings in rural Malawi, a southeast African country, to assess if women experience better marital outcomes in the presence of daughters and if so whether daughter preference plays a role.
UNASSIGNED: A provocative finding in family sociology is that couples with sons experience better marital outcomes relative to those with daughters. Sociologists contend that these marital benefits are attributable to the gender system fostering greater closeness between fathers and sons, a preference for sons, or economic, cultural, and social incentives for fathers to invest more in unions that have produced sons. Extrapolating these arguments beyond son-inspired marital benefits in patriarchal settings suggests that the reverse process-daughter-inspired marital benefits-could prevail in matrilineal contexts.
UNASSIGNED: The authors analyze three rounds of the nationally representative Malawi Demographic and Health Survey. They estimate three series of parity-specific, multivariable logistic regression models to assess the associations between child sex composition and marital outcomes (two forms of relationship abuse and polygyny) and model each outcome among the full sample of women with one to four children and control for number of children, thus conveying the average effect of sex composition across parities.
UNASSIGNED: Women with daughters-particularly women with only daughters-in predominately matrilineal, rural communities in the central and southern regions of Malawi are more likely to be in monogamous versus polygynous unions and are less likely to have experienced emotionally abusive and controlling behaviors. We find little evidence that women and men explicitly prefer or pursue daughters.
UNASSIGNED: The study shows that a matrilineal gender system can influence marital dynamics in the presence of daughters even without fostering an overwhelming preference for them.

OBJECTIVE: Child marriage remains a significant socio-cultural phenomenon with profound implications for the quality of marital relationships, particularly among young women. This study investigates the association between child marriage and the quality of marriage among young married women in Iran.
METHODS: This study employed a population-based cross-sectional research design. A total of 70 young women, aged 18-20 years, who had married before reaching 18 years of age, were selected from four primary health care (PHC) centers in Papi District, Lorestan Province, Iran, employing a systematic random sampling approach. Subjects were categorized into women experiencing relationship distress and those without such distress using the Quality of Marriage Index (QMI). Concurrently, their level of sexual satisfaction was assessed utilizing the Hudson\'s Index of Sexual Satisfaction (ISS). Furthermore, Social Support was evaluated using the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ).
RESULTS: The mean age (SD) of women was 18.9 (0.7) years, and their mean age (SD) of marriage was 15.2 (2.1) years. Women experiencing distress showed significant differences in age of menarche (P = 0.006), education levels (P = 0.039), spouses\' education (P = 0.025), spouses\' occupations (P = 0.004), household income satisfaction (P = 0.041), and household structure (P = 0.045). Pearson\'s correlation coefficient analysis revealed significant and positive correlations between sexual self-efficacy and social support with marital quality (r = 0.73, p < 0.001 and r = 0.55, p < 0.001, respectively). Conversely, there was a significant negative correlation between the score of indexes of sexual satisfaction and marital quality (r = -0.65, p < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: These findings emphasize the complex factors affecting marital quality and underscore the urgent need for interventions to support young women in early marriages. It is essential to reinforce policies aimed at reducing child marriage to improve the quality of marriage among young married women.

Cognitive function is an important indicator of healthy aging as it is central to maintaining functional independence, performing job-related tasks, decision-making, and improving quality of life. Therefore, researchers seek to identify biopsychosocial factors that can help preserve cognitive function in aging individuals. One such factor is the maintenance of good quality marital relationships. Research has consistently shown that married individuals fare better in terms of both physical and psychological health compared to their unmarried counterparts. However, being married is not universally beneficial - the quality of a marriage is also important to consider. To explore the issue further, we conducted a systematic review to examine the association between marital quality and cognitive function. PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus were searched for eligible articles examining any measure of marital quality and any cognitive outcome from the inception of each database to January 9th, 2024. Following two levels of citation screening by two independent reviewers, we included 15 articles representing 11 unique studies. Data were synthesized narratively following the Synthesis without Meta-Analysis guidelines and a risk of bias assessment was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute checklist. Most articles had a low risk of bias. Although some findings suggested more positive marital quality was associated with improved cognitive function, the results were not uniformly positive; some results were inverse or null, depending upon factors such as differences in study designs and measures of marital quality or cognition. This review is the first attempt to synthesize the literature on this topic. Our findings highlight that any examination of marital status and cognition should also consider contextual factors such as marital quality.

OBJECTIVE: Marital quality (MQ) is a psychosocial factor that has been neglected in cardiovascular prevention guidelines, although its association with cardiovascular diseases has been identified in several studies. Therefore, we aim to investigate how MQ either in positive or negative dimensions affect different cardiovascular risk factors and diseases.
RESULTS: We systematically searched different databases in September 2023 for longitudinal studies conducted to assess the contribution of MQ to well-established cardiovascular risk factors and diseases. Two independent researchers screened studies and carried out data extraction and quality assessment of included ones. From 12,175 potential studies screened, 40 were included. The presence of significant heterogeneity in methodology, follow-up, and subsequent effect estimates made it unfeasible to do a meta-analysis. Despite the variation, most studies found a significant association of negative MQ measures with physical inactivity (2/2), high levels of smoking (4/5) and alcohol (3/3) use, increased metabolic syndrome risk (3/3), elevated type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk and poor T2DM management (3/6), elevated cardiovascular disease risk and progression (9/11), increased body weight and obesity risk (2/3), elevated blood pressure and hypertension risk (7/8). Positive MQ measures were mainly associated with improvement in blood pressure control (2/2), reduced T2DM risk and its good management (1/1), reduced body weight and obesity risk (2/2), and increased survival in cardiovascular diseases (4/4). Based on current evidence, MQ seems to play a crucial role in developing established cardiovascular risk factors and diseases and is worth considering in preventive strategies.

OBJECTIVE: Prior scholarship has highlighted the importance of marriage for cognition. However, little research has considered how cognition-related concerns may impact marriage. In this study, researchers examine how aging couples view each other\'s memory and worry about their potential development of dementia in the future. Additionally, researchers investigate whether these cognition-related concerns may strain marriage, and how these dynamics differ for men and women in same- and different-sex marriages.
METHODS: Researchers used 2 waves of dyadic data from the Health and Relationships Project (HARP; 2015-2022), including 594 respondents from 297 same- and different-sex married couples (aged 41-71 at Time 2). Researchers employed the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to explore associations between actor and partner reports of memory and dementia worry with marital strain.
RESULTS: Men and women in same- and different-sex marriages were equally likely to report worries about their own potential development of dementia. However, women reported more concerns about their spouse developing dementia in the future than men did, regardless of whether they were married to a man or a woman. Both partners\' reports of memory and dementia worry played a complex role in influencing marital strain, with variations observed across couple types.
CONCLUSIONS: Concerns about cognitive decline and dementia are common in older populations, and for married couples, spouses have concerns about their own memory as well as that of their partner. Researchers finding identified the significance of concerns about a spouse\'s memory on marital dynamics among aging couples.

UNASSIGNED: Previous research suggests that cultural adaptation is associated with Mexican-origin couples\' marital outcomes, including marital distress and rates of dissolution. However, research on the marital implications of different types of spousal differences in cultural adaptation often omits important dyadic dynamics (i.e., incongruence between couples and with their partners); this, coupled with existing methodological issues, might contribute to the pattern of mixed findings in the literature.
UNASSIGNED: Using data from 273 Mexican-origin couples, we conducted response surface analyses to examine how spousal congruence in four adaptation domains (acculturation, enculturation, English proficiency, Spanish proficiency) is associated with wives\' and husbands\' marital warmth, hostility and satisfaction.
UNASSIGNED: Higher, versus lower, levels of couple matches (except for enculturation) were associated with better marital quality. Mismatches in American (acculturation, English) and Mexican (enculturation, Spanish) orientations were also associated with higher, and lower, marital quality, respectively.
UNASSIGNED: Our findings highlight the importance of examining couple matching, which has historically been understudied. We also suggest that inconsistencies in prior work can be explained by discrepant associations between mismatches in American versus Mexican orientation and relationship outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the moderating role of psychological resilience in the association between two common marital relationship stressors (poor spousal health and low marital satisfaction) and sleep (sleep quality and sleep duration) among older adults in China.
METHODS: This study used four waves of data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (2008-2018) (N = 8769), and mixed-effects logistic models were used.
RESULTS: Poor spousal health and low marital satisfaction were independently associated with increased odds of poor sleep quality and short sleep duration, and decreased odds of long sleep duration. Greater psychological resilience was associated with increased odds of good sleep quality and decreased odds of short sleep duration, but had no significant effect on long sleep duration. In addition, psychological resilience moderated the odds of poor spousal health and low marital satisfaction on the risk of short sleep duration among older Chinese adults.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide novel evidence for the increased importance of marital stress and psychological resilience on sleep health in later life. Policy interventions are needed to support vulnerable older adults who experience poor spousal health and/or low marital satisfaction.

BACKGROUND: Researchers have demonstrated that various measurement concepts and dimensions depend on context and timing.
OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the Javanese couples\' marital quality scale based on validity and reliability METHODS: In total 840 participants or 420 marital dyad from Java, Indonesia, were involved in this study. The psychometrics properties scale was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, convergent and discriminant analysis, and composite reliability.
RESULTS: The exploratory factor analysis found relationship quality to consist of support, physical proximity, warmth, communication, acceptance and respect, role sharing, and responsibility factors. Well-being quality consists of happiness, harmony, and problem-solving. The fit of the measurement model was obtained using confirmatory factor analysis. The fit model was also found in the husband\'s and wife\'s groups, with no differences between them. The high correlations between wife-husband factors also proved the validity based on convergent and discriminant evidence. The reliability coefficient was high for each dimension and construct.
CONCLUSIONS: This analysis shows that the marital quality scale developed has information on psychometric properties that can be useful for researchers and the practicians using the marital quality instrument of Javanese couples in particular.

UNASSIGNED: We examined links between marital quality and loneliness among aging veterans and explored whether veterans\' PTSD symptom severity moderated these associations.
UNASSIGNED: Data came from 269 Vietnam-Era combat veterans who had a spouse/partner (M age = 60.50). Utilizing two waves of data spanning six years, we estimated multiple regression models that included positive and negative marital quality, PTSD symptom severity, and loneliness in 2010 as predictors of loneliness in 2016.
UNASSIGNED: Facets of positive (but not negative) marital quality were associated with veterans\' loneliness. Companionship - spousal affection and understanding - was associated with lower subsequent loneliness among veterans with low/moderate - but not high - PTSD symptom severity. Conversely, sociability - the degree to which one\'s marriage promotes socializing with others - was associated with lower subsequent loneliness regardless of PTSD symptom severity.
UNASSIGNED: Companionship and sociability were each associated with veterans\' subsequent loneliness. Whereas benefits of companionship were attenuated at higher levels of PTSD symptom severity, benefits of sociability were not.
UNASSIGNED: For veterans with higher PTSD symptoms, recommending mental health treatment to decrease symptom severity may help them to reap the benefits of close/intimate relationships. However, bolstering veterans\' social participation more broadly may provide an additional means of reducing their loneliness.

OBJECTIVE: Drawing on emerging evidence that the pandemic appears to have impeded both the divorce process and actual divorces, we examined whether the gray divorce rate (i.e., divorce among adults aged 50+) declined following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS: Data from the 2019 and 2021 American Community Survey (ACS) were used to track changes in gray divorce. With the 2021 ACS, we estimated pandemic-era gray divorce rates across sociodemographic subgroups for middle-aged and older adults. We then pooled the 2019 (N = 892,700) and 2021 (N = 898,828) data to examine whether the risk of divorce changed with the onset of the pandemic net of sociodemographic characteristics, distinguishing trends for middle-aged versus older adults.
RESULTS: The gray divorce rate dropped following the onset of the pandemic. This drop was more pronounced among middle-aged than older adults. For older adults, the divorce rate essentially stalled.
CONCLUSIONS: The gray divorce rate now mirrors the overall trend of modest decline in U.S. divorce patterns. Whether the gray divorce rate continues to shrink as society transitions to a postpandemic environment awaits future research.