This meta-analysis reviewed 126 published empirical articles over the past 50 years describing associations between marital relationship quality and physical health in more than 72,000 individuals. Health outcomes included clinical endpoints (objective assessments of function, disease severity, and mortality; subjective health assessments) and surrogate endpoints (biological markers that substitute for clinical endpoints, such as blood pressure). Biological mediators included cardiovascular reactivity and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. Greater marital quality was related to better health, with mean effect sizes from r = .07 to .21, including lower risk of mortality (r = .11) and lower cardiovascular reactivity during marital conflict (r = -.13), but not daily cortisol slopes or cortisol reactivity during conflict. The small effect sizes were similar in magnitude to previously found associations between health behaviors (e.g., diet) and health outcomes. Effect sizes for a small subset of clinical outcomes were susceptible to publication bias. In some studies, effect sizes remained significant after accounting for confounds such as age and socioeconomic status. Studies with a higher proportion of women in the sample demonstrated larger effect sizes, but we found little evidence for gender differences in studies that explicitly tested gender moderation, with the exception of surrogate endpoint studies. Our conclusions are limited by small numbers of studies for specific health outcomes, unexplained heterogeneity, and designs that limit causal inferences. These findings highlight the need to explicitly test affective, health behavior, and biological mechanisms in future research, and focus on moderating factors that may alter the relationship between marital quality and health.

/pdf/marital-quality-and-health-a-meta-analytic-review-3j1hmcj5lz.pdf

Marital quality and health: A meta-analytic review.

Previous research has shown that major life events can have short- and long-term effects on subjective well-being (SWB). The present meta-analysis examines (a) whether life events have different effects on affective and cognitive well-being and (b) how the rate of adaptation varies across different life events. Longitudinal data from 188 publications (313 samples, N = 65,911) were integrated to describe the reaction and adaptation to 4 family events (marriage, divorce, bereavement, childbirth) and 4 work events (unemployment, reemployment, retirement, relocation/migration). The findings show that life events have very different effects on affective and cognitive well-being and that for most events the effects of life events on cognitive well-being are stronger and more consistent across samples. Different life events differ in their effects on SWB, but these effects are not a function of the alleged desirability of events. The results are discussed with respect to their theoretical implications, and recommendations for future studies on adaptation are given.

/pdf/subjective-well-being-and-adaptation-to-life-events-a-meta-2k3b9a6u7u.pdf

Subjective well-being and adaptation to life events: a meta-analysis.

In light of the selective focus on maternal (vs. paternal) psychopathology as a risk factor for child development, this meta-analysis examines the relative strength of the association between psychopathology in mothers versus fathers and the presence of internalizing and externalizing disorders in children. Associations were stronger between maternal than paternal psychopathology and the presence of internalizing (but not externalizing) problems in children, with all average effect sizes being small in magnitude. Relations were moderated by variables that highlight theoretically relevant differences between psychopathology in mothers versus fathers (e.g., age of children studied, type of parental psychopathology) and by variables related to methodological differences across studies (e.g., method of assessing psychopathology in parents and children, type of sample recruited, familial composition).

The association between psychopathology in fathers versus mothers and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems: a meta-analysis.

This study examines the association between marital quality and personal well-being using meta-analytic techniques. Effects from 93 studies were analyzed. The average weighted effect size r was .37 for cross-sectional and .25 for longitudinal effects. Results indicate that several variables moderate the association between marital quality and personal well-being, including gender, participants’ marital duration, source of measurement, data collection year, and dependent variable. These results suggest that longitudinal effects are more likely to be uncovered when using standard measurement and that future research should use samples homogenous in marital length. The longitudinal finding that the strength of the association is stronger when personal well-being is treated as the dependent variable supports previous theorizing.

/pdf/marital-quality-and-personal-well-being-a-meta-analysis-59kpv9ipjs.pdf

Marital Quality and Personal Well‐Being: A Meta‐Analysis

Social support concepts and measures.

The current study examines the role of perceived adequacy of social support provided by spouses for both marital and individual functioning. Married individuals from a college sample (N = 177) recorded the adequacy of specific supportive behaviors provided by the spouse on a daily basis for 7 days. Perceived support adequacy was correlated in the expected direction with marital quality, depressive symptomatology, and perceived stress. Furthermore, hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that perceived support adequacy accounts for significant unique variance in marital quality, depressive symptomatology, and perceived stress, even after controlling for social desirability. Discussion focuses on limitations of the study and implications of the findings for clinical work with couples.

Social Support in Marriage

CRYSTAL DEHLE Idaho State University ROBERT L. WEISS University of Oregon Key Words: depression, marital quality, sex. Our study replicates earlier findings linking marital quality and depressed mood and investigates whether this association is moderated by sex. Fortyseven recently married couples completed two assessments over a 3-month period. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that sex moderated the association between initial marital quality and later depressed mood. More specifically, lower scores on initial marital quality predicted greater subsequent increases in depressed mood for females than for males. In addition, for both husbands and wives, initially higher scores for depressed mood predicted greater declines in marital quality scores 3 months later. Marital therapists have long recognized that mild to moderate levels of depression are fairly commonplace among couples who seek marital therapy. Interest in explaining this clinical finding and in exploring the potential effectiveness of marital therapy for alleviating both marital distress and depressive symptomatology led to the development of the marital discord model of depression (Beach, Sandeen, & O'Leary, 1990). This model posits that facets of the marital relationship play a powerful role in the development and maintenance of depression and may promote recovery and maintenance of gains. Specifically, the model proposes that aspects of the relationship (like couple cohesion, coping assistance, self-esteem support, and spousal dependability) that can provide support are less available in distressed marriages. In addition, marital distress introduces higher levels of stress and strain through mechanisms like spousal criticism, threats of separation and divorce, disruption of marital routines, verbal and physical aggression, and major idiosyncratic marital stressors related to depressive symptomatology. Taken together, the increase in stressors and the decrease in available support are believed to mediate the link between marital distress and depression. Despite early clinical accounts of this link between marital distress and depression and the strong empirical data showing a nearly 2 to 1 rate of depression in women versus men, there is relatively little empirical data on the role of sex in associations between marital distress and depression. This study seeks to add to limited empirical data in this area of research. THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN MARITAL QUALITY AND DEPRESSION Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of marital quality and depressed mood indicate a robust association between marital quality and depression. In clinical samples, approximately 50% of married clients presenting for depression also report marital distress (i.e., low marital quality; Rounasville, Weissman, Prusoff, & Herceg-Baron, 1979), and 50% of distressed couples in marital therapy include at least one partner who reports mild to moderate levels of depressive symptomatology (Beach, Jouriles, & O'Leary, 1985). Depressed inpatients report greater marital distress than community controls do. Moreover, high rates of spousal agreement between depressed and nondepressed spouses in the inpatient group on global marital distress indicate that perceived marital distress is not solely a symptom of depressive status (Merikangas, Prusoff, Kupfer, & Frank, 1985). Community samples also reveal an association between marital distress and depression. In a risk analysis of 267 married persons, Beach, Arias, and O'Leary (1986) found that the group with low marital quality had twice the risk of elevated depressive symptomatology than did the group with high marital quality. In addition, a more recent examination of odds ratios in a community sample of 328 couples who were assessed 18 months after marriage also provides evidence that distressed couples show an increased risk of elevated depressive symptomatology (O'Leary, Christian, & Mendell, 1994). …

Sex Differences in Prospective Associations between Marital Quality and Depressed Mood

Cognitive-behavioral theories of marital functioning and contextual models of close relationships highlight the importance of proximal affect states such as anxiety in couple functioning. Despite t...

Associations between anxiety and marital adjustment.

The current study examines associations among support recipients' personality traits, social support behavior in marital interactions, and perceptions of partner social support provided during marital interactions. Sixty–six married couples participated in the study. Couples completed two measures of personality traits, and participated in two support–focused interactions. Each spouse completed ratings of satisfaction with the partner's support following discussion of an achievement-related stressor. Frequencies of four types of social support behavior were observationally coded for each spouse during his/her turn as support provider. Patterns of associations among personality traits, support behavior provided by the spouse, and satisfaction with support varied across husbands and wives. Husbands with lower levels of emotional stability and/or lower levels of conscientiousness received more esteem support from wives. Husbands with low levels of conscientiousness also received more informational s...

You can't always get what you want, but can you get what you need? personality traits and social support in marriage

The current study examines whether perpetrator type predicts impact of sexual assault. Women reporting a prior sexual assault by a cohabiting or marital partner, sexually intimate partner, nonsexual date, or acquaintance were compared on impact of event and current sexual satisfaction. Analyses showed group differences for impact of the event. Individuals in a cohabiting, marital, or acquaintance relationship reported more hyperarousal than did individuals in a dating or sexually intimate relationship. Additionally, married and cohabiting victims reported more hyperarousal than did women in the acquaintance group. Individuals sexually assaulted by a married or cohabiting partner reported more intrusive symptoms than did individuals in a dating or sexually intimate relationship. Furthermore, women in a sexually intimate relationship with their perpetrator reported lower intrusion scores than did individuals assaulted by an acquaintance.

Crystal Dehle

Papers

Social Support in Marriage

Sex Differences in Prospective Associations between Marital Quality and Depressed Mood

Associations between anxiety and marital adjustment.

You can't always get what you want, but can you get what you need? personality traits and social support in marriage

Impact of Sexual Assault as a Function of Perpetrator Type