•  
  •  
 

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

marital interactions, mood, daily health behaviors, sleep

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Family Life

Abstract

As populations worldwide grow increasingly older, the need to understand associations between daily health behaviors and relational outcomes among the aging population is of great importance. Further, exploring these associations among individuals in a relationship as common, yet as influential, as the marriage relationship is especially imperative to consider. Current literature has identified sleep as an important correlate to marital quality (Strawbridge, Shema, & Roberts, 2004). However, less is understood concerning the mechanisms that may account for this link, especially among the older population. Furthermore, though studies have identified important relationships between sleep and mood (Neckelmann, Mykletun, & Dahl, 2007), no studies to date have examined the links between sleep and marriage while taking mood into account. The current study explores these associations in the lives of 191 older adult couples using a daily context. Using confirmatory analyses of known interactions between sleep and marriage, as well as considering positive and negative mood as potential mediators of this relationship, we identified positive mood as a mediator that often significantly linked sleep and marital interactions.

Download

Included in

Sociology Commons

Share

COinS