The link between marital discord and depression has recently emerged as an important area of research. Formulations of this connection suggest that the marital relationship is an important aspect of a spouse's environment and thus can have a prominent role in the course of his or her depression. However, in order to improve our understanding of depression in the context of marital discord, it is important that researchers demonstrate that specific aspects of marital interaction are explicitly related to depressive symptoms. The proposed study will extend previous research that has examined problem solving interactions of depressed patients and their spouses by assessing the effects of problem discussions on the mood states of the patients. The discussions of depressed spouses and their partners, maritally discordant couples, and nondiscordant couples will be videotaped and coded using a marital interaction coding system, allowing identification of specific behaviors associated with these changes. Dysfunctional depressive cognitions as well as dysfunction marital cognitions will be assessed to examine the relationship of these factors to behaviors observed in the marital interaction, and changes in depressed mood.
| Sayers, S L; Bellack, A S; Mueser, K T et al. (1995) Family interactions of schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients: determinants of relatives' negativity. Psychiatry Res 56:121-34 |
