Objectives: Previous research suggests that the personalities of an individual and her/his spouse can have large implications for health and well-being. However, much of this research has been cross-sectional and has focused on broad, global personality traits. Less is known about how the components of personality traits (i.e., facets) affect changes in health and well-being over time in older couples. The current study applied actor-partner interdependence models to examine how conscientiousness and its facets moderated changes in health, health behavior, and well-being in older couples over a four-year period. Method: 3,271 older heterosexual couples (N=6,542 individuals; Mage=67.34, SD=8.59) from the Health and Retirement Study filled out a personality questionnaire at baseline. Measures of health (self-rated health, chronic illnesses), health behavior (light, moderate, and vigorous exercise), and well-being (depression) were assessed three times over a four-year period. Actor-partner interdependence models accounted for the non-independence of spouses and tested how partner conscientiousness affected health, health behavior, and well-being over time. Results: Actor conscientiousness, orderliness, and industriousness most reliably predicted better health, health behavior, and well-being. Partner conscientiousness predicted better self-rated health; partner orderliness and industriousness predicted better health and more positive health behavior. Many of these relationships persisted over the four-year study window. Discussion: The current study is the only of its kind to examine the dyadic effects of personality facets on health and well-being longitudinally. Results from the current study highlight the benefits of modeling dyadic processes within older couples and how these processes affect health and well-being over time.
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