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Marital Benefits of Daily Individual and Conjoint Exercise Among Older Couples
Author(s) -
Yorgason Jeremy B.,
Johnson Lee N.,
Hill Melanie S.,
Selland Bailey
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
family relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1741-3729
pISSN - 0197-6664
DOI - 10.1111/fare.12307
Subject(s) - psychology , multilevel model , multivariate analysis , activities of daily living , marital status , clinical psychology , gerontology , demography , medicine , psychiatry , population , machine learning , sociology , computer science
Objective To examine daily patterns of exercise among older husbands and wives, as well as how conjoint exercise was related to daily marital functioning outcomes. Background Healthy lifestyle practices are becoming more common as people prepare to live healthily into their later years. Exercise may provide unique relationship benefits for individuals and couples. Method The sample of 191 older couples was drawn from the broader Life and Family Legacies Study, and the present study included data from across 14 days. Multivariate multilevel models were estimated in SAS using the Proc Mixed procedure to examine associations between exercise and daily positive marital events, daily negative marital events, and satisfaction with daily marital interactions. Results Individual exercise on a given day was associated with more positive marital events and higher daily marital satisfaction; patterns in these results were more consistent for wives than for husbands. Conjoint exercise on a given day was also associated with nearly all marital outcomes for both husbands and wives. Conclusion Exercise may provide unique relationship benefits for individuals and couples. Results indicated that relationships benefit from both individual and especially conjoint couple exercise. Implications Couples who exercise conjointly may experience more positive marital interactions.