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PREDICTING DEPRESSION FROM MARITAL DISTRESS AND ATTRIBUTIONAL PROCESSES *
Author(s) -
Heim Susan Creekmore,
Snyder Douglas K.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1991.tb00865.x
Subject(s) - attribution , psychology , depression (economics) , causality (physics) , alienation , distress , clinical psychology , regression analysis , emotional distress , depressive symptoms , social psychology , psychiatry , anxiety , physics , quantum mechanics , machine learning , political science , computer science , law , economics , macroeconomics
This study examined the interaction between marital distress and spouses' attributions and expectancies regarding the marital relationship in predicting depressive symptoms in a mixed sample of 59 clinic and nonclinic couples. The best single predictor of depression for both sexes was a measure of disaffection, reflecting emotional distance and alienation in the marriage. However, prediction of wives' depression in multiple regression analyses was enhanced by measures of overt marital disharmony, attribution of causality for relationship difficulties to their own behavior, and failure to attribute difficulties to their husbands' behavior. Regression analyses accounted for 55% of the variance in wives' depression, in contrast to only 32% for husbands. Treatment implications are discussed.