Depressive Symptoms in Young Adults: The Role of Attachment Orientations and Romantic Relationship Conflict

Although romantic involvement in adulthood has generally been associated with enhanced well-being, some aspects of adults’ romantic relationships (e.g., maladaptive conflict behaviors) have been linked with depressive symptoms. In order to better understand the role of romantic involvement in well-being, the present study examined links among attachment orientations, conflict behaviors with romantic partners, and depressive symptoms in an undergraduate sample of young adults (N = 110). Correlational analyses generally supported the hypothesized links. When a regression series was applied to the data in order to determine whether young adults’ conflict behaviors serve as a mediator in the link between their attachment orientations and depressive symptoms, mediation was not supported. Instead, results supported a model wherein attachment orientations and conflict behaviors (attacking) were independent predictors, explaining unique variance in young adults’ depressive symptoms. Findings underscore the importance of considering specific aspects of young adults’ romantic relationships in the prediction of their depressive symptoms and illuminate the role attachment orientations and conflict behaviors in their depressive symptoms.     

Linkages between spouses' psychological distress and marital conflict in the home.

To elucidate the processes that underlie the established association between psychopathology and marital functioning, researchers have given attention to how symptomatic individuals manage their interpersonal contexts, particularly during the handling of disagreements. In the current study, the authors evaluate the role of marital conflict strategies in relation to wives' and husbands' psychological distress levels. A sample of 100 community-based couples completed assessments of psychological distress and diaries describing marital conflict that occurred at home during a 15-day reporting period. Findings from multilevel modeling of dyadic data revealed associations between both spouses' psychological distress and multiple behavioral and emotional conflict expressions in the home. Psychological symptoms uniquely predicted the occurrence of certain conflict expressions, even when accounting for global negative marital sentiments. The findings encourage subsequent consideration of marital conflict expressions and resolution strategies when studying processes involved in the marriage-psychological adjustment link.     

Attachment in marriage: effects of security and accuracy of working models

Working models of attachment in marital functioning were examined. The security and accuracy of working models were measured with a new Q-sort method. Spouses with secure working models (self as relying on partner and partner as psychologically available) showed more constructive modulation of emotion and reported better marital adjustment. The accuracy of internal working models, measured with an objective index of spouses' agreement about models, was associated with independent reports of marital adjustment and observers' ratings of communication in problem-solving and confiding tasks. Behavior in communication tasks showed predictable associations with attachment security. Husbands' attachment security covaried with wives' rejection during problem solving, and wives' security covaried with quality of husbands' listening during a confiding task. A reciprocal interaction view of working models and marital functioning is supported.     

Husbands' and wives' alcohol use disorders and marital interactions as longitudinal predictors of marital adjustment

In this longitudinal study, the relationships among wives' and husbands' lifetime alcoholism status, marital behaviors, and marital adjustment were tested. Participants were 105 couples from the Michigan Longitudinal Study (MLS), an ongoing multimethod investigation of substance use in a community-based sample of alcoholics, nonalcoholics, and their families. At baseline (T1), husbands and wives completed a series of diagnostic measures, and lifetime diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (AUD, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed.), was assessed. Couples completed a problem-solving marital interaction task 3 years later at T2, which was coded for the ratio of positive to negative behaviors. Couples also completed a measure of marital adjustment at T4 (9 years after T1 and 6 years after T2). Results showed that husbands' lifetime AUD predicted lower levels of their wife's positive marital behaviors 3 years later but was not related to their own or their wife's marital adjustment 9 years from baseline. By contrast, wives' lifetime AUD had direct negative associations with their own and their husband's marital satisfaction 9 years later, and wives' marital behaviors during the problem-solving task predicted their own and their husband's marital satisfaction 6 years later. Findings indicate that marital adjustment in alcoholic couples may be driven more by the wives' than the husbands' AUD and marital behavior. Implications for intervention with alcoholic couples were discussed.     

Longitudinal relations between forgiveness and conflict resolution in marriage.

Does forgiveness predict later conflict resolution in married couples? Twelve-month follow-up data on conflict resolution were collected from the couples studied by F. D. Fincham, S. R. Beach, and J. Davila, who had provided earlier reports of forgiveness and conflict resolution. For wives, the positive dimension of forgiveness or benevolence predicted husbands' later reports of better conflict resolution controlling for initial levels of conflict resolution. This finding was independent of wives' marital satisfaction and the degree of hurt engendered by husbands' transgressions. For husbands, the only predictor of wives' reports of later conflict resolution was initial level of conflict resolution. The findings are discussed in terms of the direction of effect between forgiveness and conflict resolution and of the mechanisms that might link them.     

Perceiving unfairness in the family: cause or consequence of marital distress?

This research tests a model suggesting that marital distress leads individuals to scrutinize what is given and received in the relationship. This scrutiny elicits perceptions of unfairness that maintain or exacerbate marital distress. In a 3-panel longitudinal study tracking married couples across the transition to parenthood, both wives' and husbands' reports of marital conflict and wives' marital dissatisfaction at Time 1 positively predicted perceived unfairness of the allocation of household tasks at Time 2, controlling for earlier perceptions of unfairness. In addition, there was evidence of perceived unfairness of division of labor at Time 2 predicting marital conflict and marital dissatisfaction for wives at Time 3, controlling for earlier conflict and dissatisfaction. This model of relationship distress and perceptions of unfairness is contrasted with prior interpretations of links between perceived injustice and distress in relationships.     

Do event-contingent diaries about marital conflict change marital interactions?

Recent increase in the use of diary measures has prompted questions about the effect completing diaries has on participants. After extensive training, married couples completed event-contingent diaries about their couple disagreements for 15 days, focusing on emotional and behavioral aspects of marital conflict. Serving as a control for placebo effects of participation, the diary group (n=110) and a non-randomized control group (n=57) also completed brief daily checklists, with minimal training, over the reporting period. Before and after the reporting period, couples engaged in videotaped conflict-resolution tasks that were coded for conflict behaviors and emotions expressed. ANOVAs comparing groups indicated that completing event-contingent diaries for 15 days had no apparent effects on observed husbands' and wives' expressed emotions and behaviors during marital interactions. Parental reports on the brief daily diaries indicated minimal differences between the groups in global measures of marital functioning. At the same time, husbands' self-reports in the home indicated decreasing perceptions of marital quality over the recording period. Thus, although no differences in conflict tactics emerged based on observed marital interactions in the laboratory, certain self-reports of responding suggested potential reactivity effects.     

Emotion regulation and intimate partner violence in newlyweds

Is the inability to regulate negative emotions a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV)? To address this question, the authors asked 72 newlywed couples to report their levels of negative affect every day for 7 days and examined whether variability in those reports was associated with the IPV self-reported to have been perpetrated over the previous year. Although main effects of variability in both husbands' and wives' negative affect did not reach statistical significance, variability in husbands' negative affect significantly interacted with wives' reports of IPV to account for husbands' IPV, even after overall levels of husbands' negative affect, marital satisfaction, and chronic stress were controlled. Specifically, whereas variability in negative affect was unrelated to IPV among husbands with wives who reported no IPV, such variability was positively associated with the IPV perpetrated by husbands with wives who also reported having perpetrated IPV during the previous year. Although preliminary, these results support theories suggesting that the ability to regulate negative emotions may help intimates avoid perpetrating IPV, particularly when faced with a partner's IPV perpetration.     

A multisource approach to self-critical vulnerability to depression: the moderating role of attachment

The present study investigated the effects of self-criticism, dependency, and attachment variables in depression among couples. We utilized a multisource design that involved self-reports and spouse reports of personality and depression. This approach enabled us to explore the patterns of relations between self-reported and the spouse's report of the partner's view of self-criticism, dependency, and attachment dimensions, as well as the contribution of the latter to the moderation of distress. Participants were 120 couples in their first marriages. It was found that: (1) Self- and spouses' reported self-criticism are both associated with depression; (2) negative assessments of personality factors and attachment models by the self and spouse contribute uniquely in predicting depressive symptomatology; and (3) beyond the covariation between target's depression and marital maladjustment, attachment models of self and of other as reported by both the self and spouse moderate the effects of self-reported personality vulnerability on depressive symptomatology. Our results indicate that self-ratings and ratings by others must both be considered in the context of depression in close interpersonal relationships. Beyond the methodological implications of multisource data, our findings support the view of depression as an interpersonal process.     

家庭支持型主管行为与双职工夫妻的婚姻满意感:一个积极溢出-交叉模型

为了揭示家庭支持型主管行为(FSSB)对双职工夫妻双方婚姻满意感的影响及作用机制,本研究结合资源-获取-发展观和基于关系支持的积极发展模型,从夫妻互动(相互支持)的角度构建了一个积极溢出-交叉模型。运用结构方程模型对370对双职工夫妻配对数据进行分析,结果表明:(1)FSSB与我国双职工夫妻双方的婚姻满意感均正相关;(2)FSSB可通过增加员工的工作-家庭增益促进员工夫妻间相互支持的互惠效应,进而提升员工夫妻双方的婚姻满意感;(3)夫妻双方所获得的FSSB均可通过促进丈夫的婚姻满意感进而提升妻子的婚姻满意感。本研究提示,增加FSSB能有效促进双职工夫妻间的相互支持、提升夫妻双方的婚姻满意感。     

Attributions and behavior in marital interaction.

To examine whether spouses' attributions for events in their marriage are related to their behavior in interaction, spouses were asked to report their marital quality, to make attributions for marital difficulties, and to engage in problem-solving discussions. Study 1 demonstrated that spouses' maladaptive attributions were related to less effective problem-solving behaviors, particularly among wives. Study 2 showed that spouses' maladaptive attributions were related to higher rates of negative behavior and, for wives, to increased tendencies to reciprocate negative partner behavior. In both studies attributions and behavior tended to be more strongly related for distressed than nondistressed wives. These results support social-psychological models that posit that attributions are related to behavior and models of marriage and close relationships that assume that maladaptive attributions contribute to conflict behavior and relationship dysfunction.     

An interpersonal perspective on depression: the role of marital adjustment, conflict communication, attributions, and attachment within a clinical sample

Previous studies have focused on the difficulties in psychosocial functioning in depressed persons, underscoring the distress experienced by both spouses. We selected conflict communication, attribution, and attachment as important domains of depression in the context of marital adjustment, and we analyzed two hypotheses in one single study. First, we analyzed whether a clinical sample of couples with a depressed patient would differ significantly from a control group on these variables. Second, we explored to what degree these variables mediate/moderate the relationship between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment. The perspectives of both spouses were taken into account, as well as gender differences. In total, 69 clinical and 69 control couples were recruited, and a series of multivariate analyses of variance and regression analyses were conducted to test both hypotheses. Results indicated that both patients and their partners reported less marital adjustment associated with more negative perceptions on conflict communication, causal attributions, and insecure attachment. In addition, conflict communication and causal attributions were significant mediators of the association between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment for both depressed men and women, and causal attributions also moderated this link. Ambivalent attachment was a significant mediator only for the female identified patients. Several sex differences and clinical implications are discussed.     

Maternal Responsiveness,Intrusiveness, and Negativity During Play with Infants: Contextual Associations and Infant Cognitive Status in A Low‐Income Sample

Maternal parenting behaviors during a mother–infant play interaction were examined in a sample of 160 low‐income mothers and their 15‐month‐old infants. Maternal responsive/didactic, intrusive, and negative behaviors were coded from videotapes and examined in relation to mothers’ age, marital status, stressful life events, and depressive symptoms, and infants’ cognitive scores at 15 and 25 months. Younger maternal age and increases in stressful life events were associated with increases in mothers’ negative behaviors whereas being married was positively associated with mothers’ responsive/didactic behaviors and inversely associated with their negative and intrusive behaviors. Mothers’ depressive symptoms were inversely associated with both responsive/didactic and intrusive behaviors and predicted lower cognitive scores in infants at 15 months, but not 25 months. Maternal responsive/didactic behaviors predicted infant cognitive scores at both ages after controlling for maternal characteristics and other parenting behaviors. Intrusiveness moderated associations between both responsive/didactic and negative parenting behaviors and infant 25‐month cognition. Maternal age, marital status, psychological resources, and contextual sources of stress play a central role in the quality of parenting among low‐income mothers, and positive mother–infant interactions are strong predictors of infants’ early cognitive status.     

Depressive moods and marital happiness: within-person synchrony, moderators, and meaning

Recent studies using within-persons designs conceptually replicate and substantively extend prior research that has shown marital distress to be a robust risk factor for depression. The present investigation further extends this within-persons research tradition by increasing the frequency of assessments and by adding new moderators and measures in a sample of both newlywed (n = 24) and maritally distressed (n = 31) wives. In both samples, the average within-persons association between 21 daily assessments of wives' depressed mood and marital happiness approximated previous estimates of analogous effects (overall r = -.54). Wives reported worse depressive mood symptoms on days they experienced lower marital happiness, even after accounting for time and between-person variation in marital happiness. Each participant's within-persons mood and marital happiness association was then treated as a dependent variable to be predicted from theoretically relevant individual differences. Multilevel modeling showed that the negative within-person association between daily depressed mood and daily marital happiness was especially strong for women who were relatively high in depressive symptoms, who had avoidant attachment styles, and who were relatively low in marital adjustment.     

Associations between anxiety and marital adjustment

Cognitive-behavioral theories of marital functioning and contextual models of close relationships highlight the importance of proximal affect states such as anxiety in couple functioning. Despite these assertions, research examining the role of state anxiety is lacking in the literature on intimate relationships. In this study, the authors examined state anxiety and marital adjustment in a sample of 45 couples. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that husbands' Time 1 anxiety can predict their own and their wives' subsequent reports of marital adjustment. Wives' Time 1 anxiety did not predict their own or their husbands' subsequent reports of marital adjustment. In this study, the authors focused on the role of husband anxiety in marital adjustment and on implications for further study of the contextual model of close relationships.     

Perceived Criticism and Marital Adjustment Predict Depressive Symptoms in a Community Sample

Depressive symptoms are related to a host of negative individual and family outcomes; therefore, it is important to establish risk factors for depressive symptoms to design prevention efforts. Following studies in the marital and psychiatric literatures regarding marital factors associated with depression, we tested two potential predictors of depressive symptoms: marital adjustment and perceived spousal criticism. We assessed 249 spouses from 132 married couples from the community during their first year of marriage and at three time points over the next 10 years. Initial marital adjustment significantly predicted depressive symptoms for husbands and wives at all follow-ups. Further, perceived criticism significantly predicted depressive symptoms at the 5- and 10-year follow-ups. However, at the 1-year follow-up, this association was significant for men but not for women. Finally, a model where the contributions of marital adjustment and perceived criticism were tested together suggested that both play independent roles in predicting future depressive symptoms. These findings highlight the potential importance of increasing marital adjustment and reducing perceived criticism at the outset of marriage as a way to reduce depressive symptoms during the course of marriage.     

Forgiveness in marriage: putting the benefits into context.

The current longitudinal study examined the consequences of spouses' tendencies to forgive their partners over the first 2 years of 72 new marriages. Though positive main effects between forgiveness and marital outcomes emerged cross-sectionally, spouses' tendencies to forgive their partners interacted with the frequency of those partners' negative verbal behaviors to predict changes in marital outcomes longitudinally. Specifically, whereas spouses married to partners who rarely behaved negatively tended to remain more satisfied over time to the extent that they were more forgiving, spouses married to partners who frequently behaved negatively tended to experience steeper declines in satisfaction to the extent that they were more forgiving. Similar patterns emerged for changes in the severity of husbands' problems, such that husbands married to wives who frequently behaved negatively reported sharper increases in problem severity to the extent that they were more forgiving but reported more stable problem severity to the extent that they were less forgiving. These findings question whether all spouses should benefit from forgiveness interventions and thus highlight the need for further research on the most appropriate targets for such interventions.     

Psychological Resources,Constructive Conflict Management Behaviors,and Depressive Symptoms: A Dyadic Analysis

This study investigated the longitudinal associations between mastery, conflict management behaviors, and depressive symptoms using an actor–partner interdependence model with 371 middle-aged couples over a span of 24 years. Results indicated that for both husbands and wives, individuals who possessed higher levels of mastery generally displayed more constructive conflict management behaviors during marital conflicts in middle years. In turn, individuals with more constructive behaviors averaged fewer depressive symptoms in their later adulthood. A partner effect was also noted, as individuals’ constructive behaviors were linked to their spouse's depressive symptoms. This finding emphasizes the importance of utilizing a dyadic context to understand intra-individual and inter-individual (or crossover) influences between husbands and wives in enduring marriages. A better understanding of how couples affect each other's mental health can inform the development and implementation of health promotion interventions and prevention efforts targeting middle-aged couples.     

The impact of spouse monitoring on target behavior and recorder satisfaction

The objectives of this study were (a) to determine the impact of a spouse monitoring procedure on the target's (husband's) behavior and the recorder (wife's) view of the marriage and (b) to assess the relationship between the target's positive behaviors and the recorder's marital satisfaction rating. In one condition, husbands were informed that their behavior was being observed, whereas in a comparison group, husbands were kept unaware of the observation procedure. In both conditions, wives kept daily recordings of (a) positive behaviors emitted by their husbands and (b) perceptions of their marital relationships. No differences were found in rates of husbands' behavior or in wives' perceptions of their marriages as a function of the awareness manipulation. Analyses examining the relationship between spouse behavior and daily satisfaction ratings indicated a statistically reliable association, although the majority of variance in satisfaction ratings was attributable to unique subject variables.This article is based on a thesis submitted by the first author to the Department of Psychology of the University of Pittsburgh. The described research was supported in part by a Faculty Research Grant from the University of Pittsburgh awarded to the second author.     

Indirect pathways between depressive symptoms and marital distress: the role of conflict communication, attributions, and attachment style

Previous studies have focused on concomitants of depression and marital distress in order to help explain the relationship between the two, suggesting that several variables, such as conflict communication, attributions, and attachment style, are associated with depression, marital distress, or both. Our contention is that the selected variables may be important mediators (hypothesis 1) or moderators (hypothesis 2) of the concomitance between depression and marital adjustment, exploring the direct and indirect ways in which depressive symptoms and marital adjustment are related. In total, 415 heterosexual couples were recruited, and a series of regression analyses was conducted to test our hypotheses separately for men and women. Results indicated that demand-withdrawal, avoidance, causal attributions, and secure, ambivalent, and avoidant attachment mediated the relation between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment in the female sample, whereas constructive communication and causal and responsible attributions were significant mediators of men's levels of depressive symptoms and marital adjustment. In addition, avoidance and secure attachment moderated the association between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment in the female sample, and causal attributions were significant moderators of the association between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment for men. Several conclusions and implications for theory and future research are discussed.