How do our relationships change as we grow older? To date, most research on couples' relationships has focused exclusively on young adults. Yet, theories of aging suggest that when it comes to maintaining happy and healthy relationships, older may be wiser as accrued life experiences allow individuals to develop a more astute sense of how and when to pick their battles. In other words, older adults may be better equipped than younger adults to successfully cope with any relationship challenges that may arise. Other theories, however, suggest perhaps it is not 'time lived' (i.e., age) per se, but 'time lived in the relationship' (i.e., relationship length) that promotes more adaptive responses to relationship challenges.

To consider these possibilities, we conducted a study of 282 couples (age range 30-88) who were either (a) in dating relationships of 3 years or less or (b) in marriages of at least 10 years in length. The final sample included 200 married couples and 82 couples in dating relationships. On average, married participants were 51.5 years old and had been married 25.5 years. This was the first marriage for 83.2% of participants. On average, dating participants were 44.5 years old and reported dating their partner for 12.7 months. Approximately 4% of participants characterized their relationship as causally dating, 62% as seriously dating, and 34% as cohabiting. With regard to their previous relationship status, 6.7% were widowed, 58.5% were divorced, and 34.8% were never married.

A Few Recent Findings:

• Older and younger dating couples do not differ in their conflict resolution styles when discussing sources of conflict in the relationship (Is Older Indeed Wiser?)