Dyadic loneliness, age, and cognitive functioning among midlife and older Black couples.

Within marriages, loneliness has been linked with individuals' own their partners' cognitive health. Yet little research has situated Black older adults within a relational, dyadic context. This study analyzed longitudinal dyadic data from the Health and Retirement Study (2010-2016;  = 1270 participants from 635 couples) from partners in opposite-sex midlife and older couples where at least one partner reported being Black or African American.: Results indicated (1) husbands' loneliness was associated with worse cognitive functioning 4 years later for wives who had high baseline cognitive functioning themselves; (2) wives' loneliness was associated with worse cognitive functioning 4 years later only for oldest-old husbands; and (3) wives' cognitive functioning was associated with slower increases to husbands' loneliness 4 years later. Findings indicate that loneliness has dyadic consequences for cognitive functioning among older Black couples, but that context is crucial for determining who is at greatest risk of harmful repercussions from a partner's loneliness.