Marital Quality and Health Over 20 Years: A Growth Curve Analysis

• Author: Cody S. Hollist,Joseph Olsen,David Law,Richard B. Miller
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12025
• Date: 01 June 2013
• Published date: 01 June 2013

RICHARD B. MILLER Brigham Young University

CODY S. HOLLIST University of Nebraska Lincoln∗

JOSEPH OLSEN Brigham Young University∗∗

DAVID LAW Utah State University∗∗∗

Marital Quality and Health Over 20 Years: A

Growth Curve Analysis

Although there is substantial evidence linking

marital quality to physical health, few studies

have been longitudinal. This study examined

data from the Marital Instability Over the

Life Course Study; 1,681 married individuals

followed for 20 years were included in these

analyses. In order to control for life course

effects, participants were divided into 2 cohorts:

early life and midlife. On the basis of latent

growth curve analysis, the results indicated

that initial values of marital happiness and

marital problems were signif‌icantly associated

with the initial value of physical health among

both cohorts. In addition, the slope of marital

happiness was signif‌icantly associated with the

slope of physical health among the younger

cohort, and the slope of marital problems

School of Family Life, 2075 JFSB Brigham Young

University, Provo, UT 84602 (rick_miller@byu.edu).

∗Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies,

University of Nebraska Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588

∗∗College of Family, Home, and Social Science, Brigham

Young University, Provo, UT 84602

∗∗∗Department of Family Consumer and Human

Development, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322

This article was edited by Deborah Carr.

Key Words: longitudinal research, marital satisfaction,

physical health.

was signif‌icantly associated with the slope

of physical health among the midlife cohort.

These results provide evidence of the signif‌icant

association between positive and negative

dimensions of marital quality and physical

health over the life course.

There is substantial empirical evidence that

marital distress is a signif‌icant risk factor for

physical health problems. Research using large,

nationally representative data sets has consis-

tently found a negative association between

marital distress and global measures of self-

reported health (Bookwala, 2005; Hawkins &

Booth, 2005; Ren, 1997; Ryff, Singer, Wing, &

Love, 2001; Umberson, Williams, Powers, Liu,

& Needham, 2006; Whisman & Uebelacker,

2006).

Most of this evidence, though, is based on

cross-sectional data, rather than longitudinal

data. Of those studies that have used longitudinal

designs, all but two studies (Umberson et al.,

2006; Wickrama, Lorenz, Conger, & Elder,

1997) used only two waves of data collection.

An advantage of including at least three waves of

data collection is the ability to use growth curve

analysis, which allows researchers to estimate

the trajectories of marital quality and physical

health over time (Karney, 2001).

Moreover, most longitudinal studies cover

less than a 10-year span of study (Levenstein,

Journal of Marriage and Family 75 (June 2013): 667 –680 667

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12025