Retirement is often associated with major changes in the lives of elderly couples, ranging from children leaving home to redefining spousal roles. Although there are a growing number of studies on aging couples, the literature review provides little information on the marital and sexual functioning of elderly couples living at home. The main purpose of this study is to report on the results of a survey on marital and sexual functioning of elderly couples living at home. This first part of the study transversally and longitudinally discusses the link between marital functioning, psychological distress and sexual function.

This survey was carried out with 508 couples living at home, but the data reported in this article on 394 elderly couples, representative of the French population in Quebec, who took part at two times during the evaluation over a period of 18months.

The results show that elderly couples overall have a good level of marital functioning and a low level of psychological distress. In spite of a positive average perception of marital functioning, a significant proportion of seniors experience serious marital distress. There is a transversal and longitudinal link between marital functioning and psychological functioning. Part two of this study, presented in the second article, describes in detail the sexual functioning of elderly couples living in Quebec. General conclusions on this survey's results are reported in the second article, particularly regarding the importance of developing and evaluating the appropriate methods of assessment and marital interventions for older couples.