Abstract
The study assessed the extent to which marriage partners’ resources contributed to their wellbeing and to negative affective reactions following the same stressful life event. The main objective was to test the differential contribution of each spouse’s perceived marital support and optimism/mastery to his or her wellbeing and to negative affect. The findings can provide important knowledge on stress and wellbeing in the context of marital relationships and psychological strength. This quantitative study tested 151 heterosexual couples (wives mean age=38.21 [SD=9.63, range=22-63]; husbands mean age=41.26[SD=10.14, range=27-65]), who experienced a stressful life event 1-24 months before the study took place. They completed several inventories assessing the following constructs: psychological resources (sense of mastery and optimism, which were combined into one score), marital support, negative affect, and wellbeing (assessed by life satisfaction). Multiple regression analyses were applied to each spouse wellbeing and negative affect, using age and education as covariates, and both spouses marital support and psychological resources as predictors. For husbands or wives, their perceived marital support contributed highly to their own wellbeing (beta =.594 and .514, respectively, p<.001) while psychological resources contribution to wellbeing was non-significant (beta=.008 and -.014, respectively). In contrast, marital support contribution to negative affect was low and non-significant (beta=-.045 and -.056, respectively) as compared with psychological resources contribution for husbands or wives (beta=-.179 and -.221, respectively, p<.05). In conclusion, the results suggest that adjustment of marriage partners to adversity may depend more on psychological resources whereas their wellbeing is more strongly tied to marital support.
Presenters
Hasida Ben-ZurAssociate Professor Emeritus, School of Social Work, University of Haifa, Israel Keren Michael
Senior Lecturer, Human Services, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley Academic College, Israel
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
The Physiology, Kinesiology and Psychology of Wellness in its Social Context
KEYWORDS
Affective reactions, Couples, Resources, Stress, Wellbeing
