Stress, coping, and marital satisfaction in couples with a depressed wife.

Abstract

The present study was designed to evaluate the relationships among psychological distress, perceived stress, marital satisfaction, and coping in three groups of couples: one group in which the wife met RDC diagnostic criteria for major depression, one group of couples in which the wife met RDC criteria for minor depression, and one group in which the wife did not meet RDC criteria for depression. Consistent with a systems conceptualization of depression, the depressed women and their husbands both reported greater dissatisfaction in their marriages than did the non-depressed control couples. In addition, whereas both the minor and major depressed women differed from the non-depressed women with respect to psychological distress and preceived stress, only husbands of the minor depressed women differed significantly on these measures from husbands of the non-depressed women, reporting greater distress and a higher level of perceived stress. Implications of these and other results are discussed, and directions for further work in this area are offered.