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ABSTRACT
This study’s purpose was to examine if older adults sharing a group identity with third-party family members moderated how older adults’ perceptions of receiving accommodation to the group identity from their romantic partner predicted older adults’ romantic relational satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Two-hundred and seventy-four older adults (MAge = 62.70 years) completed a self-report survey about their romantic partner’s communication. Perceptions of the romantic partner’s group-based identity accommodation significantly predicted romantic relational satisfaction and depressive symptoms when older adults did not share their identity with third-party family members. These associations were attenuated when older adults shared their identity with third-party family members. Ways to continue probing how dynamics in the larger family may influence the implications of accommodation are offered.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr. Bates and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on an earlier version of this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. This small subset of participants who did not provide substantive responses to the survey questions were not included in the analyses. In these cases, participants usually consented to be in the study but then left the survey shortly thereafter.
2. Verbatim instructions for this part of the survey are available upon request. The instructions gave participants numerous examples of groups so that participants could more easily visualize the various types of groups to which they might belong. Participants could report on whichever group they wanted, as long as (1) they belonged to the group and their romantic partner did not belong to the group, and (2) they did not report on their family as the group they had in mind. Participants were instructed to not report on their families, because it was reasoned that many romantic partners (including many dating partners) might be considered part of participants’ families.