Depressive symptoms across older spouses: Longitudinal influences.

Cross-sectional findings that depressive symptoms in one older spouse influence those of the other and that marital closeness increases the influences (R.B. Tower & S.V. Kasl, 1995) were tested longitudinally. Independent interviews in 1982, 1985, and 1988 with spouse-pairs who participated in the Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly showed that changes in depressive symptoms in one older spouse contributed to changes in depressive symptoms in the other. For wives in 1985 and for husbands in 1988, a spouse's baseline depressive symptoms also contributed independent variance to an increase in respondent's score on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. These findings were stronger when a couple was close. These results held when known intrapersonal risk factors and the health status of the spouse were controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of spouse cognitive impairment on respondents' depressive symptoms: the moderating role of marital closeness

An earlier report documented that, in a community-dwelling sample of 317 older married couples, cognitive impairment in a wife was associated with depressive symptoms in her husband (Moritz, Kasl, and Berkman, 1989). No similar effects were found for wives. Here we examine the extent to which marital closeness moderates the impact of a spouse's cognitive impairment, the stability of influences over 3 years, and gender differences in the associations. Analyses of covariance, controlling for respondent risk factors and potential confounders in the spouse, showed that marital closeness moderated the impact of a wife's cognitive impairment, with husbands in close marriages affected more strongly than husbands in less close marriages. These effects held over 3 years. In addition, husbands became less depressed following the death of a severely impaired wife, whereas widowers whose wife had been unimpaired at baseline were more depressed. None of these effects were found for wives.     

Moderators of the link between marital hostility and change in spouses’ depressive symptoms.

This study examined the moderating roles of marital warmth and recent life events in the association between observed marital hostility and changes in spouses’ depressive symptoms over 3 years. Using the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), structural equation models (N = 416 couples) suggested that husbands’ marital hostility was significantly related to increases in wives’ depressive symptoms. Moderator analyses showed that husbands’ warmth and wives’ warmth moderate the association between marital hostility and change in wives’ depressive symptoms. The association between husbands’ hostility and increases in wives’ depressive symptoms was stronger under conditions of lower levels of husbands’ warmth than under conditions of higher levels of husbands’ warmth. This same pattern was found for wives’ warmth. Regarding life events, the association between wives’ hostility and increases in husbands’ depressive symptoms was stronger for couples with more recent life events than for couples with fewer recent life events. Practical and empirical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms and lymphocyte proliferation in older adults.

In an 18-month prospective study, community-dwelling older adults, including both spousal caregivers of dementia patients and noncaregiving controls, were examined. Participants were selected on the basis of the presence or absence of chronic depressive symptoms that exceeded a cutoff score for clinically relevant depressive symptoms on a self-report symptom measure. Compared with nondepressed older adults, those with chronic, mild depressive symptoms had poorer T cell responses to 2 mitogens from baseline to follow-up. Additionally, among individuals with depressive symptoms, older age was associated with the poorest blastogenic response to the mitogens at follow-up. These findings extend the association between depression and immune function to community-dwelling older adults with chronic, mild depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms in early marriage: Predictions from relationship confidence and negative marital interaction.

The authors proposed a model of depressive symptoms in early marriage in which relationship confidence, defined as perceived couple-level efficacy to manage conflicts and maintain a healthy relationship, mediates the effect of negative marital interactions on depressive symptoms. The model was tested in a sample of 139 couples assessed prior to marriage and 1 year later. As predicted, relationship confidence demonstrated simple negative associations with negative marital interaction and depressive symptoms for all participants. Longitudinal path analyses supported the mediational model for women only. In women but not men, negative marital interaction indirectly had an impact on depressive symptoms through the mediator of relationship confidence. Findings suggest that relationship confidence may be important to understanding links between marital distress and depressive symptoms, especially in women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction in the context of chronic disease: A longitudinal dyadic analysis.

These analyses examined the longitudinal relationships between depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction over a 2-year period as experienced by 315 patients with end-stage renal disease and their spouses. Using multilevel modeling, the authors examined both individual and cross-partner effects of depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction on patients and spouses, testing bidirectional causality. Results indicate that mean and time-varying depressive symptoms of both patients and spouses were associated with their own marital satisfaction. Although mean marital satisfaction was associated with own depressive symptoms for both patients and spouses, time-varying marital satisfaction did not affect depressive symptoms for either patients or spouses. Significant cross-partner effects reveal that both mean enduring and time-varying depressive symptoms of the spouse affected marital satisfaction of the patient. Findings highlight the complex nature of the relationship between depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction in late-life couples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms and physical decline in community-dwelling older persons

CONTEXT: Significant symptoms of depression are common in the older community-dwelling population. Although depressive symptoms and disability may commonly occur in the same person, whether depressive symptoms contribute to subsequent functional decline has not been elucidated. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether depressive symptoms in older persons increase the risk of subsequent decline in physical function as measured by objective performance-based tests. DESIGN: A 4-year prospective cohort study. SETTING: The communities of Iowa and Washington counties, Iowa. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1286 persons aged 71 years and older who completed a short battery of physical performance tests in 1988 and again 4 years later. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Baseline depressive symptoms were assessed by the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Physical performance tests included an assessment of standing balance, a timed 2.4-m (8-ft) walk, and a timed test of 5 repetitions of rising from a chair and sitting down. RESULTS: After adjustment for baseline performance score, health status, and sociodemographic factors, increasing levels of depressive symptoms were predictive of greater decline in physical performance over 4 years (odds ratio for decline in those with depressed mood vs those without, 1.55; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-2.34). Even among those at the high end of the functional spectrum, who reported no disability, the severity of depressive symptoms predicted subsequent decline in physical performance (odds ratio for decline, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.00-1.08). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that older persons who report depressive symptoms are at higher risk of subsequent physical decline. These results suggest that prevention or reduction of depressed mood could play a role in reducing functional decline in older persons.     

Depressive symptoms predict decline in perceptual speed in older adulthood.

Depressive symptoms and cognitive decline are associated in older age, but research is inconsistent about whether one condition influences the development of the other. We examined the directionality of relations between depressive symptoms and perceptual speed using bivariate dual change score models. Assessments of depressive symptoms and perceptual speed were completed by 1,206 nondemented older adults at baseline, and after 2, 8, 11, and 15 years. After controlling for age, education, baseline general cognitive ability, and self-reported health, allowing depressive symptoms to predict subsequent change in perceptual speed provided the best fit. More depressive symptoms predicted subsequently stronger declines in perceptual speed over time lags of 1 year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological symptoms and marital satisfaction in spouses of Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans: Relationships with spouses' perceptions of veterans' experiences and symptoms.

Much research has shown that spouses of combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have higher rates of psychological and marital distress than do spouses of veterans without PTSD; however, very few studies have examined potential mechanisms of this increased vulnerability. The current study examined spouses of National Guard soldiers recently returned from deployments in Iraq. In addition to documenting elevated levels of psychological symptoms in these spouses, the authors found that spouses experienced greater symptom severity when they perceived high levels of symptoms in soldiers but the soldiers endorsed low levels of symptoms. Furthermore, spouses' marital satisfaction was negatively linked to soldiers' self-reported symptom severity only when spouses perceived that soldiers had experienced low levels of combat activity while deployed. When spouses perceived high levels of such activity, soldiers' self-reported symptoms had no relationship with spouses' marital satisfaction. These findings highlight the importance of interpersonal perceptions in intimate relationships and are consistent with the notion that uncontrollable attributions for a relative's mental health problems may provide a buffer against relationship distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prospective associations between marital discord and depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults.

Data from both spouses in a population-based sample of middle-aged and older adults (N = 1,869 couples) were used to evaluate the 2-year prospective association between marital discord and depressive symptoms. Nested path analyses indicated that (a) baseline marital discord predicted one's own depressive symptoms at follow-up, (b) baseline depressive symptoms predicted one's own marital discord at follow-up, (c) baseline depressive symptoms predicted partners' marital discord at follow-up, and (d) there were no gender differences in the magnitudes of the pathways between one's own baseline depressive symptoms and one's own marital discord at follow-up or between one's own baseline marital discord and one's own depressive symptoms at follow-up. These results suggest a bidirectional longitudinal association between marital discord and depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality disorder symptoms and marital functioning.

Pathological personality is strongly linked with interpersonal impairment, yet no study to date has examined the relationship between concurrent personality pathology and dysfunction in marriage--a relationship that most people find central to their lives. In a cross-sectional study of a community sample of married couples (N = 82), the authors used multilevel modeling to estimate the association of self- and spouse-reported symptoms of personality disorder (PD) with levels of marital satisfaction and verbal aggression and perpetration of physical violence. Inclusion of self- and spouse report of total PD symptoms resulted in improved model fit and greater variance explained, with much of the improvement coming after the addition of spouse report. The incremental validity of spouse report for several of the 10 PD scales was supported for marital satisfaction and verbal aggression, particularly for the Borderline and Dependent PD scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender and marital adjustment level differences in decoding messages from spouses and strangers.

48 married couples (mean age 33.5 yrs) who, in an earlier study by the present author (see record 1981-25650-001), had received a score indicating how accurately they decoded ambiguous messages from their spouses, were shown a videotape of strangers of both sexes sending similar messages in the present study. In the earlier study, low-marital-adjustment (determined by the Short Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test) Ss had obtained lower scores when decoding their spouses than had other Ss; such differences were not found when these Ss were decoding opposite-sex strangers. Findings suggest the possibility that the communication problems found in low-marital-adjustment couples are a consequence of the unhappy relationship rather than the cause of it. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroticism, marital violence, and the moderating role of stress and behavioral skills.

Do high levels of neuroticism predict intimate partner violence (IPV)? Although neuroticism may predispose partners to increased risks of IPV perpetration, the extent to which it predicts such perpetration is likely to depend on the broader context of the relationship. Consistent with this prediction, the current longitudinal study of 169 community couples revealed that the effects of neuroticism on IPV perpetration over the first 4 years of marriage were moderated by observations of problem-solving behavior and objective ratings of chronic stress. Specifically, although husbands and wives who scored higher on a measure of neuroticism at the outset of marriage engaged in more IPV throughout the marriage on average, those who possessed more effective problem-solving skills or experienced lower levels of stress were significantly less likely to engage in IPV. Results highlight the importance of considering the broader relationship context when examining predictors of specific interpersonal processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms and impaired respiration in sleep.

Documented the relationship between depression and impaired respiration in sleep among 176 males and 160 females (aged 50+ yrs) using the geriatric depression scale (GDS) developed by J. A. Yesavage et al (see record 1984-02939-001), which measures nonsomatic depressive symptoms. Although arbitrarily formed groups of Ss with low and high respiratory disturbance differed on the GDS, mean values and effect size suggested that impaired respiration in sleep was associated with only relatively mild depressive symptoms. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postpartum psychiatric disorders: Their relationship to psychological adjustment and marital satisfaction in the spouses.

The authors examined mental health and marital quality in an index group of spouses of women with postpartum psychiatric disorders and a control group of men whose wives had recently given birth but had no such disorders. At 6 to 9 weeks postpartum, couples underwent a psychiatric interview and completed self-report measures of psychological symptoms, marital satisfaction, and changes in couple and family functioning since the birth. Index spouses reported more symptoms and had lower Global Assessment of Functioning (R. L. Spitzer, J. B. W. Williams, M. Gibbon, & M. B. First, 1990) scores than controls. Index men reported greater marital dissatisfaction and more change in household routines, recreation, and intimacy with their partners than controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptom patterns among older women.

The structure of depressive symptom patterns was investigated in a community sample of 344 women between the ages of 51 and 92 who were administered the SCL-90—R Depression and Additional Symptoms Scales. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test alternative measurement hypotheses implied by clinical formulations of depressive symptom patterns among elderly persons. The findings show support for the hypothesis that 2 somewhat different depressive syndromes, along with 4 more delimited forms of distress, underlie symptom-reporting patterns. Implications of these findings for future research on the relation between aging and depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nature of the relationship between remarried individuals and former spouses and its impact on marital satisfaction.

The relationship with a former spouse and its impact on marital satisfaction were examined in a sample of 290 remarried individuals. There was little continued attachment and friendship with the former spouse; although infrequent, feelings of hostility were still more common than either friendship or continued attachment. The relationship with the former spouse was more positive among the more highly educated and among those who did not have children from the former marriage. Continued attachment to the former spouse was especially negatively related to current marital satisfaction. Wives' marital satisfaction was negatively related to their husbands' attachment, and wives had more objections to this type of attachment. Particularly among women, friendship with a former spouse was dependent on their husband's positive attitude toward this type of friendship. Women were likewise more dissatisfied with marriage the more problems their husbands had with the way they related to the former spouses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characteristics of women physically abused by their spouses and who seek treatment regarding marital conflict.

Abused women (23 physically vs 25 marital discordant nonabused) reported significantly more fear of their spouses and reported that their spouses were significantly more coercive and psychologically aggressive than women in the 2 matched nonabused groups. Abused women did not report higher rates of abuse as a child, nor did they report higher rates of past psychopathology than women in the nonabused groups. However, abused women and nonabused discordant women reported higher rates of emotional abuse in childhood than maritally satisfied nonabused women. Result suggests that childhood abuse and a history of depression may be risk factors for women in abusive and nonabusive discordant relationships. Abused women reported higher rates of posttraumatic stress disorder than women in the discordant-only and community control groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Revisiting the effect of marital support on depressive symptoms in mothers and fathers: A genetically informed study.

This article uses a genetically informed design to evaluate whether (1) the well-documented association between marital support and depressive symptoms is accounted for by genetic and/or shared environmental selection, (2) gender differences are found after controlling for selection effects, and (3) parenthood moderates any nonshared environmental relation between depressive symptoms and marital support. We used a sample of 1,566 pairs of same-sexed, married twins from the Australian Twin Registry to evaluate our hypotheses that (1) the predicted effect of marital support on depressive symptoms is not fully an artifact of selection, (2) the etiological sources accounting for this effect differ between husbands and wives, and (3) parenthood status moderates the effect of marital support on depressive symptoms adjusting for selection effects. The results support the first hypotheses. However, after controlling for selection, the effect of marital support on depressive symptoms was not significantly different for husbands and wives. Parenthood moderated the effect of marital support, such that after controlling for selection, marital support is more strongly associated with depressive symptoms for full-time parents than nonfull-time parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)