The Course and Quality of Intimate Relationships Among Psychologically Distressed Mothers

Intimate partner relationships, including marriage, serve as a central context for adult and child health and development (NICHD, 2006) and as a benchmark of overall family functioning (Greeff, 2000). Parental benefits related to happy partnerships include better health and higher life satisfaction (Dush & Amato, 2005; Lillard & Waite, 1995). Moreover, positive intimate relationships, as indicated by supportive communication exchanges and constructive problem solving skills, reliably co-vary with lower levels of psychological distress among partners (Biglan et al., 1985; Papp, Goeke-Morey, & Cummings, 2007). Despite a strong research base supporting interrelations between intimate partner relationships and parents’ mental health, investigation of the longitudinal associations has received scant attention (see Rehman, Gollan, & Mortimer, 2008). Attention to parents’ relationship functioning over time is well warranted due to implications for their own psychological well-being and their children’s development (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2002). Empirical and theoretical accounts indicate bi-directional associations between intimate partner relationships and mental health, particularly depression (Beach, Whisman, & O’Leary, 1994; Rehman et al., 2008). Moreover, couple therapies are supported as efficacious treatment of affective disorders such as depression and anxiety (Baucom, Shoham, Mueser, Daiuto, & Stickle, 1998). Partner relationships and depression are uniquely linked in that marital relationships were found to be more affected than other social relationships (i.e., those with relatives and friends) by 6-month prevalence of clinical disorders (Whisman, Sheldon, & Goering, 2000). Furthermore, intimate relationship dysfunction cannot be fully explained by impairment related to psychiatric disorders; associations between marital relationship discord and psychological distress (depression and anxiety symptoms) in a population-based sample remained even after controlling for current mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders (Whisman & Uebelacker, 2006). Thus, the evidence linking relationship functioning and symptoms of psychological distress is robust. Whereas earlier research in the marital functioning and mental health literature compared married versus non-married individuals and documented that married people generally experience better mental health than non-married individuals (Gove, Hughes, & Style, 1983; Pearlin & Johnson, 1977), recent research has aimed to understand co-variations between intimate relationship functioning and psychological distress. The association between depressive symptoms and interpersonal distress emerges consistently in studies involving both clinical and nonclinical samples (Beach & O’Leary, 1993; Burns, Sayers, & Moras, 1994). Moreover, these associations hold for both men and women and endure across time (e.g., Davila, Karney, Hall, & Bradbury, 2003; see Whisman, 2001). Relational conflict often precedes, maintains, and follows a depressive episode (Barnett & Gotlib, 1988; Burns et al., 1994), although evidence generally supports a bidirectional relationship between relationship processes and partners’ mental health (Davila et al., 2003; Kouros, Papp, & Cummings, 2008). Given that most research conducted to date has relied on cross-sectional or short-term longitudinal studies (e.g., Davila et al., 2003; Kouros et al., 2008; Whisman & Uebelacker, 2006), there is a pressing need to examine how intimate relationship functioning and maternal depressive symptoms change together over time along a developmental course that maps on to child development. The birth of a child is associated with changes in relationship functioning: not only does the birth of a child predict when some marriages occur, but it also relates to declines in relationship functioning, especially if the parents experienced uncertainty or conflict around the pregnancy (Cox, Paley, Burchinal, & Payne, 1999; Snowden, Schott, Awalt, & Gillis-Knox, 1988). The birth of a child further predicts changes in parents’ psychological distress (Areias, Kumar, Barros, & Figueiredo, 1996), with maternal depressive symptoms increasing as children develop (Najman, Andersen, Bor, O’Callaghan, & Williams, 2000). Thus, capturing the developmental course of linkages between relationship functioning and parental psychological distress as children develop is needed because depressive symptoms and intimate relationships change over time (Rehman et al., 2008; Karney & Bradbury, 1995), and these changes have family-wide effects on parents and children (e.g., parent-child relationships, sibling relationships; Cox & Paley, 1997). Previous research has suggested that sociodemographic characteristics may place parents at risk for evidencing lower intimate relationship functioning (e.g., less likely to be married and remain married over time, lower levels of marital quality). In addition, such risk characteristics might moderate the associations between maternal depressive symptoms and intimate relationship status or quality (Jones-Webb & Snowden, 1993). As examples, mothers who are younger at the birth of a child or mothers of racial/ethnic minority status are less likely to be married and remain married over time (Graefe & Lichter, 2002). Further evidence suggests that having more children is linked to family members’ stress and declines in marital quality (VanLaningham, Johnson, & Amato, 2001), such that marital functioning may be lower for mothers around the birth of later-born (compared to first-born) children. Finally, although tests of child gender in relation to marital functioning have revealed inconsistent results (Davies & Lindsay, 2001), some research indicates that marriages of parents of children including at least one boy are relatively protected (Katzev, Warner, & Acock, 1994). Studying moderators of the mental health–marital functioning linkage to date has commonly concerned newlywed samples (Davila et al., 2003; Kurdek, 1998), thereby leaving questions about how these processes unfold over time among mothers with young children. The present study examined the longitudinal associations between maternal depressive symptoms and the course and quality of intimate partnerships over a 15-year span of child development. Both relationship status and quality were examined: Marital status was more predictive than maternal age at first child’s birth of women’s depressive symptoms (Kalil & Kunz, 2002), and relationship theorists have argued that a comprehensive understanding of intimate relationship development is necessary because substantial variation in psychological distress and intimate relationship functioning exists (Rehman et al., 2008). A large community-based sample of families was utilized, facilitating the simultaneous inclusion of multiple covariates previously identified as important to intimate relationship functioning. Levels of psychological distress were investigated because they are highly distressing themselves and predictive of subsequent diagnosable disorders (Lewinsohn, Solomon, Seeley, & Zeiss, 2000). To test the first hypothesis, multilevel binomial models examined the probability of relationship status (married vs. nonmarried) as a function of partners’ psychological distress. It was hypothesized that depressive symptoms would predict a lower likelihood of being married, given notions of relational rejection or dissolution in contexts of partner depression (Coyne, 1976). Models accounted for sociodemographic covariates of intercept and slope of relationship course, development over time, and previous relationship status to ensure that the associations indicate unique linkages between depression and marital status across time. To test the second hypothesis, multilevel growth models examined levels of and change in relationship quality as a function of psychological distress. Following findings that a depression diagnosis in adolescence predicted marital distress in early adulthood (Gotlib, Lewinsohn, & Seeley, 1998), it was hypothesized that depressive symptoms would predict lower levels of intimate relationship quality among partnered mothers. Models again accounted for covariates of relationship quality at the initial assessment point and in change over time, and further controlled for development or repeated assessment over time, concurrent marital status, and previous marital status. As such, models revealed unique linkages between depression and relationship quality over time.