MARITAL SATISFACTION AMONG OLDER COUPLES: THE ROLE OF SATISFACTION WITH SOCIAL NETWORKS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

Marital satisfaction is important for health and well-being, although deter-minants of satisfaction among older couples are unclear. Much of the marital literature has focused on the role of the spouse, in isolation from satisfaction with broader social relationships. We conducted separate semi-structured interviews with both members of n = 40 couples (mean age 76 years) to measure satisfaction with particular types of social networks (confidant, friend, children, other relatives) as well as levels of physical and psycho-logical well-being. In order to account for the likely interdependence among observations within married couples, a series of multi-level models, cul-minating in a full actor-partner interdependence model, were fitted. Results indicate that an individual’s own depressive symptoms were related to thei