Affiliation and control during marital disagreement, history of divorce, and asymptomatic XXXX in older couples.

@entity729 @entity453 @entity1
OBJECTIVE: To examine behavioral observations of affiliation (ie, warmth versus hostility) and control (ie, dominance versus submissiveness) and prior divorce as predictors of @entity729 ( @entity729 ) in older couples. In some but not all studies, marital disruption and low marital quality have been shown to confer risk of @entity453 ( @entity453 ). Inconsistencies might reflect limitations of self-reports of marital quality compared with behavioral observations. Also, aspects of marital quality related to @entity453 might differ for @entity1 and @entity1 . METHODS: Couples underwent computed tomography scans for @entity729 and marital assessments, including observations of laboratory-based disagreement. @entity1 were 154 couples (mean age, 63.5 years; mean length of marriage, 36.4 years) free of prior diagnosis of @entity453 . RESULTS: Controlling traditional risk factors, we found behavioral measures of affiliation (low warmth) accounted for 6.2% of variance in @entity729 for @entity1 , p < .01, but not for @entity1 . Controlling behavior (dominance) accounted for 6.0% of variance in @entity729 for @entity1 , p < .02, but not for @entity1 . Behavioral measures were related to self-reports of marital quality, but the latter were unrelated to @entity729 . History of divorce predicted @entity729 for @entity1 and @entity1 . CONCLUSIONS: History of divorce and behavioral--but not self-report--measures of marital quality were related to @entity453 , such that low warmth and high dominance conferred risk for @entity1 and @entity1 , respectively. Prior research might underestimate the role of marital quality in @entity453 by relying on global self-reports of this risk factor.
