Spousal Social Activity Trajectories in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing in the Context of Cognitive, Physical, and Affective Resources

We examined the dyadic interdependence of spousal social activity trajectories over 11 years by using longitudinal data on 565 couples from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (M age = 76 years at Time 1). Social activity trajectories were interrelated in elderly couples, and they depended not only on individual but also on spousal cognitive, physical, and affective resources at baseline. Most associations examined were similar in husbands and wives. However, wives performed more social activities and displayed different depression-social activity associations than did husbands. We found stronger within-couple associations in the domain of social activities than for cognition. Our findings illustrate the important role of social relationships for late-life development and suggest that the mechanisms involved in dyadic interdependencies may be domain and gender specific.