Marital Benefits of Daily Individual and Conjoint Exercise Among Older Couples

Abstract

ObjectiveTo examine daily patterns of exercise among older husbands and wives, as well as how conjoint exercise was related to daily marital functioning outcomes.BackgroundHealthy lifestyle practices are becoming more common as people prepare to live healthily into their later years. Exercise may provide unique relationship benefits for individuals and couples.MethodThe sample of 191 older couples was drawn from the broader Life and Family Legacies Study, and the present study included data from across 14 days. Multivariate multilevel models were estimated in SAS using the Proc Mixed procedure to examine associations between exercise and daily positive marital events, daily negative marital events, and satisfaction with daily marital interactions.ResultsIndividual exercise on a given day was associated with more positive marital events and higher daily marital satisfaction; patterns in these results were more consistent for wives than for husbands. Conjoint exercise on a given day was also associated with nearly all marital outcomes for both husbands and wives.ConclusionExercise may provide unique relationship benefits for individuals and couples. Results indicated that relationships benefit from both individual and especially conjoint couple exercise.ImplicationsCouples who exercise conjointly may experience more positive marital interactions.