FRIDAY, March 21, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- In older married couples, the husband's health and attitude seem to affect perceptions of marital conflict, according to a study published in the February issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.
James Iveniuk, from the university of Chicago, and colleagues examined data from the 2010 to 2011 wave of the National Social Life Health and Aging Project, a nationally representative study with data on both partners in 955 marital and cohabitational dyads. The authors sought to understand the effects of health and personality characteristics on late-life marital conflict.
The researchers found that wives with husbands in fair or poor physical health were more likely to report high levels of marital conflict, although the reverse was not true. When their husbands were high on neuroticism, high on extraversion, and low on a new measure called positivity, wives also reported more conflict.
"The findings suggest noteworthy gender differences between men and women in the associations between individual characteristics and levels of marital conflict," the authors write.
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