Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Reprints and permissions: sagepub. This study examined, with a sample of older adult, caregiving couples, whether each spouse's health was associated with their own and their partner's relationship satisfaction. The cross-sectional Actor—Partner Interdependence Model showed that for both caregivers and care recipients, greater depressive symptoms and lower self-reported health related to lower relationship satisfaction actor effects.
Caregivers had lower relationship satisfaction when they were more disabled actor effect and when care recipients were more depressed partner effect. Keywords: caregiving, disability, marriage, physical health, relationship satisfaction. There is also evidence that spousal caregiving places a significant strain on the quality of marital relationships Ascher et al. However, most caregiving research assumes that the care recipients' health status is a stressor that affects the caregiver's psychological well-being, with a focus on the caregiver's perspective and needs Lyons et al.
If relationship satisfaction is measured, it is often only reported by caregivers. No research to our knowledge has considered the associations of both caregivers' and care recipients' health conditions and disability with both partners' relationship satisfaction. This is important because having close, supportive relationships is a central component of older adults' quality of life, regardless of whether older adults fit the traditional criteria of a caregiver or care recipient Hoppmann et al.
Furthermore, according to interdependence theory, which states that close relationship partners interact in ways to maximize rewards and minimize costs to maintain relational harmony, couple members' thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and health are highly interdependent Kelley and Thibault, ; Monin et al. A better understanding of bidirectional, reciprocal, and mutual processes between spousal caregivers and care recipients will inform interventions for couples who are struggling with one or both partners' chronic conditions or disability Martire, Defining the caregiver and the care recipient roles among older adult spouses is not always straightforward.
Oftentimes caregiving researchers are interested in a specific health context, for example, cancer, arthritis, or dementia, and the spousal caregiver is defined as the partner who does not have the particular health condition. A drawback of this approach is that the caregiver may be dealing with his or her own, perhaps different, chronic condition or disability that may interact or compete with the care recipient's condition.
