The Research Project
Coupledom in later life seeks to explore how couple relationships* in later life might be experienced and maintained when partners are separated because one lives in a care home.
Couple relationships in later life is an emerging area of research - not least in thinking about caregiving and receiving when one partner has dementia. Yet so far little attention has been given to the situation of those minority but highly complex relationships that are lived out across different residential environments.
This study aims to contribute to this growing body of work on later life as well as inform wider ongoing research on loneliness, quality of life and dynamics of care and caring in later life.
There is so far very little public data on the marital/partnership status of residents in care homes and that contributes to the 'invisibility' of married residents and their spouses in policy, practice and research. Their needs and aspirations are likely to be different from couples living together in their own homes, and different from single or widowed older adults who live in care homes.
To understand more about couples in such situations, our research is concerned with exploring with older couples’ their own experiences of living apart, and how they sustain and manage their relationship at a distance.
*We use the word ‘couple’ to include cohabiting, civil, same-sex and married partnerships.
Couple relationships in later life is an emerging area of research - not least in thinking about caregiving and receiving when one partner has dementia. Yet so far little attention has been given to the situation of those minority but highly complex relationships that are lived out across different residential environments.
This study aims to contribute to this growing body of work on later life as well as inform wider ongoing research on loneliness, quality of life and dynamics of care and caring in later life.
There is so far very little public data on the marital/partnership status of residents in care homes and that contributes to the 'invisibility' of married residents and their spouses in policy, practice and research. Their needs and aspirations are likely to be different from couples living together in their own homes, and different from single or widowed older adults who live in care homes.
To understand more about couples in such situations, our research is concerned with exploring with older couples’ their own experiences of living apart, and how they sustain and manage their relationship at a distance.
*We use the word ‘couple’ to include cohabiting, civil, same-sex and married partnerships.