Project Overview
Couples Who Play Together Stay Healthy Together: Shared Activities, Sleep, and Health
Department(s)
Psychological and Brain Sciences
Abstract
Popular culture tells us that couples who play together stay together. Research evidence aligns, finding that couples who do shared leisure activities together experience increased relationship satisfaction, individual growth, and ability to accomplish goals (Harasymchuk et al., 2020; Muise et al., 2019; Tomlinson et al., in prep). One way that relationship processes have been linked to health is through health behaviors, such as sleep. Sufficient and high quality sleep, in turn, are linked to myriad health outcomes, including better cardiovascular health, fewer depressive and anxiety symptoms, and less pain (e.g., Li & Gooneratne, 2019). We propose daily sleep quality and duration (measured through subjective assessments and actigraphy data) and daily subjective well-being as mechanisms linking exciting shared activities with health. To test these hypotheses, we are in the process of recruiting 100 couples over the age of 55 to participate in a daily diary study with actigraphy measures. Data collection for the study has already begun and the goal is to complete the Time 1 data collection and continue the longitudinal follow-ups. Once data collection is complete, students will have the opportunity to analyze the data for the study and begin writing up the results.
Student Qualifications
Psychological Science or Neuroscience major (or intended major).
Number of Student Researchers
2 students
Project Length
8 weeks
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