The therapeutic role in later life: Husbands, wives and couples

The present study investigates the extent to which marital partners are different or similar in their ways of enacting the therapeutic, or supportive, role. Specifically, the article compares husbands and wives categorically as in non-dyadic studies and then as marital partners as in dyadic studies. In addition, this study, by using data from the Aging Couples Study, included only dual-earner couples so as to control for the effects of work life on marital relations. Results showed that studies of individual married men and women understate the differences between marital partners in that some wives ''overbenefit'' in the exchange of conjugal supports. However, husbands more often ''overbenefit.'' Findings also indicated that the norm of reciprocity does not prevail regarding the extent of support, although it does for the types of support exchanged.