Centre for Policy on Ageing



Is it contagious? — affect similarity among spouses
Author(s)	C R Goodman, R A Shippy
Journal title	Aging & Mental Health, vol 6, no 3, August 2002
Pages	pp 266-274
Source	http://www.tandfonline.com
Keywords	Depression ; Visual impairment ; Spouses ; Correlation ; United States of America.
Annotation	Theories of emotional contagion suggest that spouses mutually experience affective or emotional states. However, empirical support for this theory is limited. This study uses a dyadic approach to examine affect similarity of depressive symptoms between 123 elders dealing with a recent vision loss and their spouses. Guided by a stress predictor model, hierarchical regression analyses of predictors of spouse depressive symptoms revealed that the spouse's race, health, care-giving appraisal, self-efficacy, conflict with other family members regarding their partner, and their partner's depressive symptoms significantly predicted spouse depression. Specifically, spouses who were white, in poorer health, experienced more care-giver burden, had more family conflict, and poorer self-efficacy, were more likely to be depressed. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020919212 A
Classmark	ENR: BR: SN: 49: 7T
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.