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Status Transitions and Marital Satisfaction: The Case of Adult Children Caring for Elderly Parents Suffering from Dementia

Louisiana State University

Karl Pillemer

Cornell University

This article uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative data to examine the factors explaining marital satisfaction among 117 women who recently began caring for an elderly parent with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia. The analysis examines the relative importance of the demands of caregiving, other social statuses the caregiver occupies (employment and parenting of minor children), husband's provision of instrumental and emotional support and husband's behaviors that hinder the caregiving effort. The findings indicated that husbands' hindrance and emotional support were related to marital satisfaction, while husbands' instrumental support was not. None of the other variables in the analysis was important in explaining marital satisfaction. These findings are consistent with other recent studies that demonstrate the relative importance of spouses' emotional support and hindrance in explaining marital satisfaction following status transitions.

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