Gender, marital closeness, and depressive symptoms in elderly couples.

Data from the Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (EPESE) in New Haven include independent interviews with husbands and wives in 317 community-dwelling older couples. Drawing on these data, we (a) describe the prevalence of three aspects of marital closeness: having a confidant, perceived emotional support, and reciprocity between spouses' reports of marital closeness; (b) evaluate their associations with depressive symptoms according to both a respondent's own and his or her spouse's reports; and (c) examine gender similarities and differences in the prevalence and the associations of the closeness variables. Both husbands and wives responded more strongly to their spouse's than to their own. Different dynamics operate, with husbands having fewest depressive symptoms when they have emotionally independent wives, and wives having low levels when they feel important emotionally to their husbands. Dyadic closeness was associated with fewer symptoms in wives and more symptoms in husbands.