Aging and perceiving aging together: couple synchrony in self-perceptions of aging and health

Self-perceptions of aging (SPA) are interconnected within couples, but we know little about how spouses' SPA change jointly over time and affect each other's health. The current study addressed these gaps by tracking SPA trajectories in older couples and exploring how individual trajectories were associated with cognitive and physical health in both spouses.

We used longitudinal data from a pooled sample of 1,946 heterosexual couples aged 50+ in the Health and Retirement Study. Participants rated their own positive and negative SPA every 4 years (2008/2010 to 2016/2018) and completed biennial assessments of cognitive and physical health.

We conducted dyadic growth curve models to test couple synchrony in SPA trajectories. Wives and husbands reported highly correlated positive and negative SPA at baseline, but within-couple similarity in the rate of change was only observed in positive SPA. Actor-partner interdependence models found that wives' negative SPA at baseline were negatively associated with their own cognitive and physical health, and also with their husbands' cognitive health. For both wives and husbands, faster declines in one's positive SPA were associated with better physical health in themselves but worse physical health in their spouses. For wives only, faster increases in negative SPA were associated with better cognitive health but worse physical health.

This study advances our understanding of how older couples' SPA evolve as they navigate their later years jointly. By uniquely examining cross-spousal associations between SPA trajectories and health, our findings inform dyadic SPA interventions to promote health in both spouses.