Understanding Age-Related Changes in Relationship Maintenance Strategies

大量研究表明，高质量的浪漫关系使个人在情感和身体上都能茁壮成长。事实上，亲密关系对健康的影响已经被证明比吸烟、酗酒和肥胖等各种负面健康行为的影响更大。不幸的是，更长的预期寿命和高离婚率导致了一种新的社会现实，在这种现实中，老年人(即60岁以上)越来越发现自己没有伴侣，正在寻找伴侣。尽管有这些社会趋势，但关于老年人如何形成和维持令人满意的新恋情的研究很少。尽管亲密关系研究有很多关于创造更快乐、更健康关系的关系过程的说法，但这篇文献绝大多数集中在年轻人的关系形成上，留下了关于这些发现的普遍性的悬而未决的问题。同样，尽管老龄化文学已经形成了与年龄相关的人际交往技能变化的有影响力的理论，但这些观点在浪漫领域的应用主要集中在长期婚姻(例如，20年以上)的老年人，因此可能不会推断到新建立的浪漫关系。因此，这项拟议的研究旨在填补这一空白，并将测试个人在处理一段新的浪漫关系不可避免的起伏时，是否存在与年龄相关的潜在变化。具体地说，当前建议的目标是检查随着年龄而来的生活经历是否有助于在出现关系冲突时做出积极和建设性的反应。结合老龄化和亲密关系文献的见解，这个问题的答案可能取决于关系背景。尽管随着年龄的增长，社交情感专长的增加应该会增强老年人在长期关系中成功应对人际关系挑战的能力，但在新建立的约会关系中，老年人相对于年轻人的优势可能会减弱。事实证明，在关系发展的早期阶段，努力尽量减少关系冲突往往更加困难；不幸的是，当关系冲突得不到有效避免时，老年人往往比年轻人更容易受到这种挑战可能带来的情感和身体代价的影响。因此，目前的项目旨在通过一项多方法研究，比较长期婚姻中的老年人、新形成的浪漫关系中的老年人、长期关系中的年轻人和新形成的浪漫关系中的年轻人的维持策略，以及这些策略对情感和身体健康的影响，从而更全面地了解在一生中维持关系的努力。这项研究的结果将有助于在一生中提高幸福感和健康水平。

A wealth of research indicates that high quality romantic relationships allow individuals to thrive both emotionally and physically. In fact, the impact of close relationships on health has been shown to be larger than the impact of a variety of negative health behaviors, such as smoking, excessive drinking, and obesity. Unfortunately, longer life expectancies and high divorce rates have contributed to a new social reality in which older adults (i.e., age 60+) increasingly find themselves unpartnered and searching for companionship. Despite these societal trends, research on how older adults form and maintain satisfying new romantic relationships is scarce. Although the close relationships research has much to say regarding the relationship processes that create a happier, healthier relationship, this literature has focused overwhelmingly on relationship formation in young adults, leaving open questions regarding the generalizability of these findings to an older population. Similarly, although the aging literature has developed influential theories about age-related changes in interpersonal skills, applications of these ideas to the romantic domain have focused on older adults in longstanding marriages (e.g., 20+ years), and thus may not extrapolate to newly-formed romantic relationships. Thus, the proposed research is designed to fill this gap, and will test if there are potential age-related changes in the way individuals navigate the inevitable ups and downs of a new romantic relationship. Specifically, the goal of the current proposal is to examine whether the life experience that comes with age facilitates positive and constructive responses when relationship conflicts arise. Integrating insights from both the aging and the close relationships literatures suggests that the answer to this question may depend on the relational context. Although the increases in socioemotional expertise that come with age should equip older adults with enhanced ability to successfully manage relationship challenges in longstanding relationships, older adults' advantage over younger adults may diminish in the context of newly-formed dating relationships. Efforts to minimize relationship conflict often prove more difficult in the early stages of relationship development; unfortunately, when relationship conflicts are not effectively averted, older adults tend to be more vulnerable than younger adults to the emotional and physical costs such challenges can bring. Thus, the current project aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of relationship maintenance efforts across the lifespan through a multi-method study comparing the maintenance strategies of older adults in longstanding marriages, older adults in newly-formed romantic relationships, younger adults in longstanding relationships, and younger adults in newly-formed romantic relationships, as well as the implications of these strategies for emotional and physical well-being. Results from this study will be informative for improving happiness and health throughout the lifespan.