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The
purpose of this study is to examine the effect of repeated measures of
marital quality, collected over the first several years of marriage, on
cardiovascular risk factors and self-reported health symptoms in husbands
and wives. In addition, drawing from current relationship research,
we will examine whether the communal strength of many marriages -- that
is, the knowledge that one's spouse will be non-contingently responsive
and nurturing to one's needs and vice versa, accounts for associations
between global marital satisfaction and standard cardiovascular risk factors.
The proposed associations will be evaluated in the context of an ongoing
study of newlywed couples. We hypothesize that higher levels of global
marital satisfaction and greater communal strength will be associated with
a healthier cardiovascular risk factor profile, i.e., central adiposity,
blood pressure, glucose, insulin, and lipid levels, and fewer self-reported
health symptoms in husbands and wives during the first several years of
marriage. Provided that our hypothesis is confirmed, at least in
part, we will 1) evaluate whether the measures of communal strength mediate
associations between global marital satisfaction and physical health outcomes;
and 2) test the moderating role of gender. That is, consistent with
previous literature, we hypothesize that the effect of marital quality
on health outcomes will be stronger in women than in men. (PDF
VERSION)(MS
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