Depression and Marital Adjustment

The current study investigated trust's mediation of the relationship between depression and marital satisfaction in individuals who had or had not suffered a betrayal. Self-report measures assessing dyadic trust, depressive symptoms, marital adjustment, and presence of betrayal were administered to couples as part of a larger study of forgiveness and family functioning. In couples who had experienced a betrayal, both trust and depression predicted marital satisfaction. In addition, trust mediated the relationship between depression and marital satisfaction in women who had experienced a betrayal. In men who had experienced a betrayal, trust predicted marital satisfaction but not depression; thus, mediation was not established. Possible reasons for this gender difference as well as directions for future research are discussed. Depression and Marital Adjustment 3 Martial Satisfaction, Depression, and Betrayal There is a robust link in the couples literature that the experience of depression in an individual is linked to marital satisfaction and marital dissatisfaction (Whisman, 1999,2001). For instance, Herr, Hammen, & Brennan (2007) compared rates of depression of both married men and women and found that, regardless of gender, those classified as currently depressed also reported significantly lower marital satisfaction. Strikingly, the same study also found that those classified as formerly depressed also reported significantly lower current marital satisfaction, highlighting the strong and lasting link between depression and marital satisfaction. The association between depression and marital satisfaction is further bolstered by the finding that in couples in which the wife is depressed, both husband and wife report higher levels of marital dissatisfaction (Gotlib & Whiffen, 1989). Evidence also suggests that the relationship between depression and marital satisfaction may be bi-directional. For example, in a longitudinal study Time 1 marital quality predicted Time 2 depression in both the depressed individual and his/her spouse (Beach et al., 2003), suggesting that lower marital satisfaction may negatively affect an individual's rate of depression. On the other hand, there is also evidence to suggest that depression may inhibit positive relationship interactions, causing lower satisfaction. Further, individuals who have experienced depression during adolescence experience more marital dissatisfaction later in life (Gotlib, Lewinsobn, & Seeley, 1998). This preponderance of evidence suggests that not only are depression and marital satisfaction linked, but this association is long lasting, affects both members of the dyad, and is a complicated bi-directional relationship. Depression and Marital Adjustment 4 There is also an association between betrayals and marital satisfaction which suggests that couples who have and have not experienced a betrayal may differ on a variety of relationship factors (Atkins et al., 2005; Atkins, Baucom, & Jacobson, 2001). Newlyweds asked to rate the likelihood they would experience infidelity over the course of their relationship, for example, gave higher ratings when marital satisfaction was lower (Buss & Shackelford, 1997). There is additional evidence that experiencing a betrayal alters the relationship between depression and marital satisfaction. For example, women who had been betrayed reported not only higher levels of negative relationship associations, but also reported depressive episodes (Hurst, 1999). Cano and O'Leary (2000) found that depression was significantly correlated with marital satisfaction when a humiliating life event, such as infidelity, was experienced. These studies suggest that not only are depression and marital satisfaction linked in general, but that the presence or absence of a betrayal within the relationship can affect the strength of the link between depression and satisfaction.