TILL DEATH DO US PART: LIFE SATISFACTION IN COUPLES PRECEDING PARTNER DEATH AND PERSONALITY AS A DYADIC MODERATOR

摘要

This work aims to integrate and expand previous research perspectives on partner bereavement and terminal well-being decline: First, by taking a couple-level perspective to investigate life satisfaction trajectories in to-be-deceased and to-be-bereaved partners and, second, by exploring the role of extraversion and neuroticism as potential resources in this critical phase of life. We applied multi-level dyadic growth curve modelling to 330 couples in the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, to estimate both partners’ trajectories of life satisfaction impending the death of one couple member. Controlling for age at (partner) death, disability status, and education, we included actor and partner extraversion as well as neuroticism as predictors of individual growth parameters. We found that to-be-deceased and to-be-bereaved partners experienced significant declines in life satisfaction as they approached the year of (partner) death and that these declines were characterized by some degree of acceleration. Between-partner correlations were high for the growth parameters of life satisfaction, suggesting a strong degree of co-development in the years approaching (partner) death. Higher extraversion and lower neuroticism in actors and partners were associated with higher levels of life satisfaction in the year before (partner) death. Linear slopes were not affected by extraversion and neuroticism, however, we observed significant buffering effects of partner neuroticism on quadratic declines. Acknowledging the couple as a developmental unit and considering both partners’ resources for adjustment seems to offer a promising venue for studying inter-individual differences in developments of subjective well-being at the end of life and in the experience of impending partner bereavement.