Spousal social support and strain: impacts on health in older couples.

Using a nationally representative sample of couples aged 51+ in the United States (N = 1,923 couples), the current study investigated whether both partners' perceptions of relationship support and strain are associated with an individual's self-rated health and functional limitations. The sample had an average age of 67.17 years (SD = 9.0; range 50-97). Actor-Partner Interdependence Models adjusting for couple interdependencies were applied using multilevel models. After accounting for age, education, gender, race, and couple differences in length of marriage, results indicate that individual perceptions of support were significantly associated with higher self-rated health and fewer functional limitations. These individual-level benefits increased if the spouse also perceived positive support and low strain. Finally, the negative association of an individual's perceived support on functional limitations was greater in those with a spouse reporting low levels of perceived strain. Findings are discussed relative to theory on behavioral and psychological pathways between partners' perceptions of support and health.

Supervisor support training effects on veteran health and work outcomes in the civilian workplace.

This randomized controlled trial involved the development and evaluation of a supervisor support training intervention in the civilian workforce called VSST: Veteran-Supportive Supervisor Training. A theoretically based intervention in the workplace is critical to ensuring a smooth transition for service members and their families to civilian life, leading to improved psychological and physical health and improved work outcomes among service members. Thirty-five organizations were recruited and randomized to the VSST training program or a waitlist control group. Within those organizations, 497 current or former (post 9/11) service member employees were asked to complete baseline and 3- and 9-month follow-up surveys covering work, family, and health domains. The computerized 1-hr training, and the behavior tracking that followed were completed by 928 supervisors from the participating organizations. Intervention training effects were evaluated using an intent-to-treat approach, comparing outcomes for service members who were in organizations assigned to the training group versus those who were in organizations assigned to the control group. Moderation effects revealed the intervention was effective for employees who reported higher levels of supervisor and coworker support at baseline, demonstrating the importance of the organizational context and trainee readiness. The results did not show evidence of direct effects of the intervention on health and work outcomes. Qualitative data from supervisors who took the training also demonstrated the benefits of the training. This study affirms and adds to the literature on the positive effects of organizational programs that train supervisors to provide social support, thereby improving health and work outcomes of employees who receive more support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Work-Hour Trajectories and Depressive Symptoms among Midlife and Older Married Couples.

Life course theories highlight the importance of understanding psychological health of aging individuals in context. Work and marriage are influential contexts in later life that are increasingly relevant because both spouses of many households work and individuals are delaying retirement. Although there is extensive literature on predictors of depressive symptoms, incorporating life course histories of work and social contexts has been a critical omission in the aging and health field. This study identifies couples' work trajectories as a function of husband's and wife's weekly work hours and examines the link between couple work-hour trajectory membership and individual depressive symptoms. Data are from 1641 married couples who participated in the 1998-2012 waves (ages 51-89) of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Findings revealed six distinct subgroups of work-hour trajectories among couples and that membership in these subgroups was associated with depressive symptoms. Retiring husbands with wives who continued to work and wives who worked minimally throughout the years (regardless of whether their husbands worked or retired) reported more depressive symptoms than other subgroups. These results suggest that work trajectories themselves, beyond current health status, may carry differential psychological health risk. Moreover, several sociodemographic and life course factors in 1998 were significant predictors of trajectory membership. These findings provide insight into midlife factors that may influence work trajectories (and the potential health risk) through to older adulthood. They suggest that a life course examination of work and social contexts is needed for a greater understanding of individual and couple health development.

The development of marital tension: Implications for divorce among married couples.

Marriages are often characterized by their positive and negative features in terms of whether they elicit feelings of satisfaction and happiness or conflict and negativity. Although research has examined the development of marital happiness, less is known about the development of negativity among married couples. We examined how marital tension (i.e., feelings of tension, resentment, irritation) develops within couples over time and whether marital tension has unique implications for divorce. Specifically, we examined marital tension among husbands and wives within the same couples from the first to the sixteenth year of marriage, as well as links between marital tension and divorce. Participants included 355 couples assessed in years 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 16 of marriage. Multilevel models revealed that wives reported greater marital tension than husbands. Marital tension increased over time among both husbands and wives, with a greater increase among husbands. Couples were more likely to divorce when wives reported higher marital tension, a greater increase in marital tension, and greater cumulative marital tension. Findings are consistent with the emergent distress model of marriage, but indicate that despite the greater increases in marital tension among husbands, wives' increased marital tension over the course of marriage is more consistently associated with divorce. (PsycINFO Database Record

Going the extra mile and feeling energized: An enrichment perspective of organizational citizenship behaviors.

Scholars have voiced concerns about the potential dark side of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB), arguing that OCB consumes energy, which contributes to a depletion of personal resources and results in poorer well-being. Drawing from research on the meaningfulness of work, we propose a pattern opposite to depletion: that OCB enhances energy, which contributes to an enrichment of personal resources and results in better well-being. This idea was tested over the course of a workweek with 224 day-level ratings from 67 employees and 30 managers working in a service management firm. Three-level hierarchical linear modeling indicated that supervisor-rated daily OCB was positively associated with employees' vigor at the end of the workday, and multilevel structural equation modeling analyses showed that this relationship was mediated by meaningfulness of work. Moreover, we found that the association between OCB and work meaningfulness was stronger for employees with greater role ambiguity. Exploratory analyses revealed that daily in-role performance and daily OCB interacted to predict meaningfulness of work, such that the association between daily OCB and meaningfulness of work was more prominent among those who exhibited high levels of daily in-role performance. We discuss implications of these findings, limitations, and directions for future research.