Security of attachment to spouses in late life: Concurrent and prospective links with cognitive and emotional wellbeing.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Prospective longitudinal cohort study assessing outcomes concurrently and at 2.5 years.
PubMed 26413428 · doi:10.1177/2167702614541261
What was done
Eighty-one elderly heterosexual couples (162 individuals) completed interviews to evaluate the structural security of attachment to their spouses. Participants completed assessments of cognitive function and psychological wellbeing at baseline and again at a 2.5-year follow-up.
What was found
Factor analysis identified a single factor representing attachment security. Concurrently, higher security was associated with greater marital satisfaction, better mood, fewer depressive symptoms, and less frequent marital conflicts. Prospectively at 2.5 years, higher security predicted lower negative affect, less depression, and greater life satisfaction. Among women specifically, greater attachment security predicted better memory performance at 2.5 years and buffered against the negative association between marital conflict frequency and memory deficits. The abstract reports no numerical values, effect sizes, or confidence intervals.
Why it matters
This study shows that internal attachment representations of a spouse remain relevant in late adulthood, prospectively predicting both emotional wellbeing and aspects of cognitive maintenance over time.
Limits
The sample was relatively small (81 couples) and restricted to heterosexual pairs. The abstract reports no statistical effect sizes, test statistics, or exact confidence intervals, and the observational design cannot establish causal mechanisms.
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- context Data from the Harvard Study of Adult Development indicates that men with average lives, incomes, and families reported the highest subjective happiness levels compared to high-achievers.