Original Articles Spousal Interactions in Alzheimer’s Disease and Stroke Caregiving: Relationship to Care Recipients’ Functional Abilities and Physical and Emotional Health

between caregivers and care recipients have an impact on health outcomes of ill per-sons. Building on the work of Bowlby (1988) and Wright, Hickey, Buckwalter, and Clipp (1995), spousal interactions are conceptualized as adult attachment; it is argued that this attachment provides protective functions for ill spouses. OBJECTIVES: Our objectives in this study were to examine spousal interactions along two diver-gent illness trajectories, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and stroke, and to relate time 1 spousal interactions to care recipients ’ time 2 functional abilities and physical and emotional health. STUDY DESIGN: This longitudinal pilot study compared 42 couples (84 spouses) equally divided between early phase AD, 12 weeks after stroke, and healthy controls. Baseline (time 1) data and 6-month follow-up data (time 2) were collected in home interviews. Measures included spousal interactions and illness characteristics of persons with AD and recipients of care after a stroke. RESULTS: AD couples reported lower quantity and quality of interactions compared with stroke couples. Spousal interactions were positively correlated to physical and emo