Marriage in the Later Years: A Review of Factors That Affect Marital Satisfaction among Older Adults

Older Americans represent the fastest growing subset of the U.S. population. Although the general population tripled over the course of the last century, the population of those over 65 years of age increased by a factor of eleven (Friedrich, 2001). Furthermore, the U.S. Census Bureau predicts that this population will soar from 33 million in 1994 to more than 80 million by the middle of the 21st century (Hobbs, 2001). Despite this ongoing demographic shift, older adults are vastly under-represented in marital research (Acitelli & Antonuuci, 1994; Goodman, 1999a; Trudel, Turgeon, & Piche, 2000) and few theoretical models exist to explain fluctuations in marital satisfaction for this population (Herman, 1994).