Family stress model pathways in middle adulthood to loneliness in later adulthood: Role of self-mastery

The present study investigated economic hardship and feelings of loneliness in line with the Family Stress Model (FSM) for husbands and wives in enduring marriages, as well as the importance of self-mastery as a resilience factor that may disrupt its effects. Data came from 226 husbands and wives who participated from middle to later adulthood. Assessments included self-report and observational measures. Economic hardship, economic pressure, emotional distress in the form of hostility, and observed harsh couple interaction were assessed in middle adulthood. Loneliness was assessed in later adulthood. Self-mastery in the later years was examined as a resilience process for loneliness. Using structural equation models with a dyadic approach, consistent with the FSM, results indicated economic hardship related to economic pressure, which was related to husband and wife hostility. Both actor and partner effects were significant for the paths from hostility to harsh couple interaction for husbands and for wives. However, it was only wife to husband harsh couple interaction that predicted both wife and husband loneliness. In terms of the resilience process, self-mastery had a compensatory effect for husband and wife loneliness, and wife mastery buffered the effects of her harsh couple interactions and husband loneliness. Results suggest economic hardship experienced in middle adulthood has long-term effects on loneliness into later adulthood, but self-mastery was revealed as an individual- and partner-level resilience factor that reduced or buffered the negative impact of FSM on loneliness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).