When I Do Not See or Hear So Well: Dyadic Associations Between Sensory Impairment,Communication,and Relationship Satisfaction in Older Age

Abstract

Sensory impairments in older adulthood are associated with interpersonal struggles, including communication difficulties and lower relationship satisfaction. Using a sample of 139 older Danish couples (aged 60 years and older), we examined the dyadic associations between sensory impairment (hearing and/or vision), communication satisfaction (with self-presence, own emotional experience, partner’s responsiveness, partner’s contribution), and relationship satisfaction. Actor-partner-interdependence-modeling showed that husband’s greater hearing impairment was associated with wife’s lower emotional experience and presence during communication. Conversely, wife’s greater vision impairment was associated with husband’s lower emotional experience, and lower perceptions of wife’s responsiveness and contribution during communications. Moreover, husband's lower satisfaction with wife's responsiveness and contribution during communication was associated with lower relationship satisfaction. For wives, lower satisfaction with their emotional experience and their partner’s responsiveness was associated with lower relationship satisfaction. Results contribute to a limited literature that seeks to understand sensory impairment among older adults from a dyadic perspective.