Premium
Initiator status, family support, and adjustment to marital separation: A test of an interaction hypothesis
Author(s) -
Kincaid Stephen B.,
Caldwell Robert A.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(199101)19:1<79::aid-jcop2290190108>3.0.co;2-o
Subject(s) - spouse , respondent , psychology , marital status , social support , depressive symptoms , clinical psychology , separation (statistics) , demography , psychiatry , social psychology , cognition , population , machine learning , sociology , anthropology , political science , computer science , law
Fifty‐six newly separated, volunteer participants (40 women, 16 men) were examined to determine if depressive symptomatology (as measured by the CES‐D) was related to the respondent's active participation in the decision to separate from the spouse (initiator status) and the proportion of family members in their social support network. The relationship between initiator status and depressive symptomatology was marginally significant, F (l, 50) = 3.93, p = 0.053. There was an interaction between initiator status and the proportion of family members in the social network. For initiators, a low proportion of family members was related to increased depressive symptomatology ( r = 0.15), whereas for noninitiators, a low proportion of family members was related to increased depressive symptomatology ( r = ‐ 0.37), a difference significant at p <.04. It is suggested that the functional ability of the network to be supportive is mediated both by aspects of the individual in need of support and by structural aspects of the network.