Whereas sharing a life with someone with high cynical hostility can be straining, little is known about how partner\'s cynical hostility is associated with one\'s mental health. In this paper, we report the findings from a longitudinal dyadic study using two waves of a large and representative American sample of older adults and their spouses to examine how one\'s own and their spouse\'s cynical hostility longitudinally affect anxiety and depressive symptoms. Results from APIM analyses suggest that both husbands\' and wives\' anxiety and depressive symptoms were negatively associated with their own cynical hostility, both within each time point and longitudinally. Partners\' cynical hostility, however, predicted only husbands\' mental health cross-sectionally. Furthermore, a moderating effect was identified, although it was not consistently observed across all analyses. Specifically, when a partner\'s cynical hostility was high, the association between one\'s own cynical hostility and their mental health was stronger, especially for women. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between depression and sexual satisfaction in middle-aged women has been reported previously. However, there is insufficient evidence that depression is related to sexual satisfaction or that sexual satisfaction is related to depression. This study evaluated the relationship between depression and sexual satisfaction in middle-aged women by evaluating the equation model analysis of the two models.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 190 middle-aged women in Isfahan, Iran, in 2021. Sexual satisfaction dimensions were evaluated using self-report women\'s sexual satisfaction questionnaire. Also, the depression scale of the general health questionnaire was used to measure of the depression level. Research data were analyzed using a multivariate linear regression test. Also, the fit of the model was evaluated using Amos software.
RESULTS: The results showed that depression score had an inverse relationship with sexual satisfaction in the relational concern dimension (Beta = -0.27, P = 0.006, CI: -0.11 to - 0.86). Model fit evaluation showed that the sexual satisfaction-depression model had a better fit than the depression-sexual satisfaction model (CMIN/DF = 1.123, P = 0.64).
CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that depression in middle-aged women is related to the relational concern. It is necessary to consider counseling programs to solve sexual relationship concerns in middle-aged women\'s mental health promotion programs.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present research was to evaluate the relationship between the level of work involvement and emotional attitude to work and the quality of marital relationships of partners in dual career relationships, divided into \'early career\' and \'late career\' relationships. In addition, the mediating role of satisfaction with one\'s accomplishments was assessed.
METHODS: The study included 184 dual career couples, where both partners pursued a professional career in a competitive labour market, often performed managerial functions and reconciled their professional roles with parental roles, where 69 were \'early career\' relationships and 115 were \'late career\' relationships. All subjects in the dual career marriages had higher education; the age of the respondents ranged from 28 to 43 years and all of them had at least one child. With respect to the applied research tools, the AVEM Questionnaire, the Labour-Family Matching Questionnaire, the Matching Marriage Questionnaire (KDM-2) and the Feeling of Happiness Questionnaire were used.
RESULTS: The results show a negative impact of the level of professional and emotional work engagement on the quality of marital relations in the relationship; however, the observed trend only refers to the \'late career\' relationships. Therefore, it can be concluded that the level of engagement in professional roles at the moment of entering into a relationship is an important moderating factor in these relationships. In addition, it was found that the level of self-satisfaction eliminates this negative relationship. We can say that the level of satisfaction is the mediator of the relationship between involvement in professional roles and the quality of marital relationships.
CONCLUSIONS: The level of work engagement and emotional attitude toward work affects the quality of personal life and relationships in a couple. However, this impact can vary due to additional variables such as satisfaction with one\'s own accomplishments and type of relationship.

UNASSIGNED: This study analyzes the victimization trajectories of partner violence against women surrounding divorce, depending on whether the couple has children together.
UNASSIGNED: Prior studies have found that partner violence is associated with an increased risk of divorce. No study has assessed the victimization trajectories surrounding divorce for women with and without children, although women with children may remain at higher risk of violence following divorce.
UNASSIGNED: Using Finnish record-linkage data of 22,468 divorced and 333,542 continuously married women and their husbands, we used repeated-measures logistic regression analyses to assess changes in victimization for partner violence before and after divorce. The outcomes considered were police-reported crimes committed by husbands against their wives and hospital-treated assault injuries recorded for wives.
UNASSIGNED: The risk of crime victimization for partner assault was already elevated from 2 to 3 years before divorce, peaked in the year prior to divorce, and then mainly leveled off 1-2 years after divorce. Hospital data show that the time of the greatest risk was from 6 to 12 months before divorce, when divorce is usually filed for. Women with younger children experienced elevated risks of physical violence shortly before divorce and remained at higher risk of menace than women without children for a year after divorce.
UNASSIGNED: Divorcing women committed assaults against their husbands, but these were mostly accompanied by victimization, suggesting that resistant violence was common for women as perpetrators. Women with a history of victimization need support, especially at the starts of their divorce processes.

UNASSIGNED: This study considers how the provision of daily emotion work may affect the psychological well-being of the emotion worker, and how this linkage may vary for men and women in same- and different-sex marriages.
UNASSIGNED: Emotion work-work intended to bolster a spouse\'s well-being by reading and managing the spouse\'s emotional needs-is common within marital relationships and often gendered, with women more aware of and concerned with emotion work than men. Yet, the psychological cost of performing emotion work is largely unexplored.
UNASSIGNED: This study relies on 10 days of daily experiences data from spouses in same- and different-sex marriages (n = 756 individuals). Mixed effects multilevel regression modeling is used to examine how the provision of emotion work is associated with the emotion workers\' psychological well-being.
UNASSIGNED: Providing emotion work is inversely associated with emotion workers\' psychological well-being, especially when provided for a spouse with elevated depressive symptoms. These estimated effects are generally similar for men and women but greater for those married to a man than for those married to a woman, whether in a same- or different-sex marriage.
UNASSIGNED: Emotion work appears to adversely affect the worker\'s own psychological well-being, especially when a spouse has elevated depressive symptoms and when one\'s spouse is a man. These results point to the importance of dyadic approaches and consideration of gendered relationship dynamics of same- as well as different-sex couples in studies of emotion work and other marital processes.

OBJECTIVE: To examine psychological health as a mechanism linking economic pressure and marital instability in the early middle years to poor physical health in later life.
BACKGROUND: Although previous research suggests that sustained stressful marital experience may lead to mental and physical health problems, little is known about how contextual factors, such as economic pressure, impact marital outcomes, and how changes in marital attributes influence health outcomes in a longitudinal and dyadic context.
METHODS: Utilizing an actor-partner interdependence model within a latent growth curve approach and prospective data from couples in enduring marriages, we examined the associations between family economic pressure, marital instability, and mental health over their early middle years (1989-1994) and subsequent physical health in later adulthood (2015). Analyses assessed a couple-level pathway and an individual pathway involving within-spouse and between-spouse effects.
RESULTS: During the middle years, family financial difficulties were linked to reduced marital stability, which was associated with increased mental health challenges. The findings also reinforced the salient role of psychological distress for subsequent physical health outcomes as husbands\' and wives\' anxiety symptoms over their early middle years contributed to declines in their physical health outcomes in later adulthood. A partner effect was noted between husbands\' anxiety and wives\' physical health.
CONCLUSIONS: For couples, experiences of financial and marital stress in their early middle years can have long-lasting detrimental impacts on their physical health in later adulthood.

UNASSIGNED: Studies of therapy influence on after-aphasia marital relations are lacking. Much needs to be learned about the range of factors associated with couples benefiting from therapy. Understanding these issues is key to facilitating optimal post-aphasia outcomes from the perspective of the patient and his caretaking spouse. This paper reports an evaluation of a group therapy intervention conducted with aphasic people and their life partners.
UNASSIGNED: The intervention comprised of 10 sessions of approximately 90 min duration and included two groups of couples, with fluent and non-fluent aphasic partner. The therapy program consisted of basic communication activities within the group which encouraged sharing of personal experience but mostly relied on psychoeducation, gaining knowledge about after-stroke aphasia. The respondents were interviewed and completed neuropsychological assessment. Quality of marriage was determined using Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Marital adjustment was measured twice, before intervention and after 6 months. Long-time effects of therapy included a significant mean difference in quality of marriage between therapy attendants and controls. Marital relationship decline seems to be worse amongst control subjects, who were not involved in any kind of psychological support. In spite of initial non-distressed relationship they report deterioration of their bond in half a year\'s time. We also showed changes in dynamics of quality of marriage during this time in all investigated groups. The implications of these findings for counseling services are discussed.

BACKGROUND: Following a brain injury, caregiving spouses/partners differ in their perceptions of relationship continuity/discontinuity (i.e. whether the relationship is experienced as similar or different to the pre-injury relationship). Perceptions of continuity are associated with better psychological wellbeing and a better relationship.
OBJECTIVE: To conduct a pilot test of an intervention aimed at exploring the possibility of supporting caregiving partners to experience greater continuity within their relationship post-stroke.
METHODS: A post-stroke couple was provided with integrated behavioural couples therapy for three months, which aimed to increase relationship continuity alongside addressing individual goals identified by the couple. Before and after measures were taken using a battery of six questionnaires evaluating changes in perceptions of continuity, relationship quality, and stress.
RESULTS: Quantitative and qualitative data showed post-therapy improvement in all the measures.
CONCLUSIONS: The study suggested that perceptions of relationship continuity can be improved by therapy, and that such an improvement might have a beneficial impact in terms of relationship quality and psychological wellbeing. The intervention is currently being further developed and evaluated.

Objective Relationship continuity/discontinuity refers to whether a spouse/partner experiences their current relationship with someone with an acquired brain injury (ABI) as a continuation of their loving pre-injury relationship or as radically changed. The aim of this study was to adapt a questionnaire measure of continuity/discontinuity from dementia research for use in an ABI context and to evaluate the psychometric properties of this adaptation. Method The questionnaire was adapted in response to feedback from a focus group of ABI caregivers. Its psychometric properties were then evaluated in two studies involving partners of people with ABI. Results The measure showed high internal consistency (alpha = .956 in Study 1 and .963 in Study 2), test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation = .960 in Study 1) and discriminative power (Ferguson\'s delta = .975 in Study 1 and .963 in Study 2). Evidence of construct validity was provided by a predicted pattern of correlations with other relationship questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis suggested that the questionnaire is unidimensional. Discussion A valid and reliable quantitative measure of relationship continuity/discontinuity will enable more robust evaluation of suggestions about this construct that have been made in qualitative studies (e.g. that discontinuity is associated with a greater sense of caregiver burden).

Marriage, a marker event for the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, brings with it many changes, including shifts in values, new roles, and adjustments in a couple\'s relationship. Marriage also appears to generate shifts in alcohol use and alcohol consumption, changes that can occur even before the marriage ceremony takes place. Alcohol plays a role in marital violence, marital quality, and marital disruptions. However, high levels of individual alcohol consumption in a marriage do not uniformly lead to lower marital quality. Rather, it may be the nature of a couple\'s drinking partnership (i.e., the interplay of each spouse\'s drinking context and drinking patterns) that has the most effect on the health of a marriage.