Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Amy J. In a diverse community sample of married couples, we examined received psychological abuse PA as a longitudinal predictor of men's and women's sleep. Participants reported on marital functioning and mental health during three assessments T1, T2, T3 and sleep problems during two assessments T2, T3 , with 1-year lags between waves.
Growth curve analyses revealed that for both spouses, higher initial levels of PA and increases in PA over time predicted greater sleep disturbances at T3. For husbands and wives, anxiety and depression mediated some of the associations between PA and sleep problems. For wives, moderation effects highlighted the importance of violence, anxiety, and depression in exacerbating sleep problems associated with PA. Results build on and contribute significantly to the scant literature implicating the importance of the marital relationship for sleep and suggest that simultaneous consideration of intrapersonal and interpersonal variables is critical when explicating sleep disruptions.
Poor sleep is associated with increased risk for numerous psychological, physical health, and cognitive problems e. We examined a common stressor, namely psychological abuse PA , in the marital relationship, as a key determinant of the quality of people's sleep over time. For individuals who share this environment, the decrease in vigilance needed for sleep entails a level of trust and security with one's sleep partner.
But what if one's partner not only fails to provide a sense of security, but actually increases the individual's anxiety? The antecedents and correlates of this relationship-centered anxiety and particular relationship factors associated with sleep, however, have not been explicated. Mixed findings may be attributable to the failure of previous research to account for the quality and nature of the partnership of the cosleeping couple.
In a community-based sample of 2, women, maritally satisfied women reported fewer sleep disturbances than less satisfied women, even after controlling for depressive and anxiety symptoms Troxel et al. Although these findings are important, the use of a single-item measure of relationship satisfaction, the cross-sectional approach, and the sole inclusion of women limits the generalizability of these results. Emerging evidence from cross-sectional studies suggests that intimate partner violence is linked with sleep problems in women.
