Daily solitude and well-being associations in older dyads: Evidence from daily life assessments

Abstract

Older adults spend significant time by themselves, especially since COVID-19. Solitude has been associated with positive and negative outcomes. Partners need to balance social connectedness with time for one's own needs. This project examines how individual and partner solitude are associated with daily affect and relationship quality in dyads of older adults and a close other. One-hundred thirty-six older adults plus a close other rated their relationship quality and reported affect, solitude, and its characteristics (desired and bothersome) every evening for 10 days. Over and above overall associations, individual and partner effects emerged; when individual desired solitude was up, participants reported more positive affect and their partners less negative affect. When bothersome solitude was up, participants and their partners alike reported more negative affect and less positive affect. Desired solitude was associated with more support, whereas bothersome solitude was associated with less partner support. Findings provide further evidence on the potential benefits of solitude, highlighting the importance of considering the social context of what is often believed to be an individual-level phenomenon.