A recent study from the University of Colorado reveals that distress in long-term relationships is connected to an increased risk of depression. The research, led by Mark Whisman, examines not just depressive symptoms but the actual incidence of Major Depressive Episodes. Using propensity score analysis to control for confounding factors, the study suggests that supportive relationships may help minimize discord and maximize fulfillment, while relationship distress can contribute to the development of depression over time.
A new study connects the risk for depression to feelings of distress in long-term relationships . By supporting each other, you and your partner can minimize discord and maximize each other’s fulfillment.
People often think about ways to make themselves better. Whether it’s more adaptable, kinder, or more self-confident, we turn to a variety of sources from websites that offer checklists to popular books that seem to offer magic success formulas. But what if the answer was far more simple and straightforward? If you’re in a long-term relationship, just look to your romantic partner.
If the relationship is a healthy one, chances are it’s the person who knows you the best who could be your most reliable and knowledgeable fountain ofLooking at the situation from the opposite perspective, the latest study by University of Colorado’s Mark Whisman and colleagues builds on the vast literature suggesting that couples who don’t get along well develop symptoms ofas the years go by. These studies became the basis for their own analysis which took a different approach to the available data.
Their first twist on the evidence was to examine not just symptoms but actual incidence of what’s called a Major Depressive Episode , or two-week period in which individuals experience diagnosable depressive symptoms. Their second twist was to use a method called “propensity score analysis” which matches groups of participants on the basis of relevant controls. This can be considered random assignment “lite” in that it does everything except assign participants to groups.
Its advantage over regular long-term analyses that predict depression from relationship quality is that it takes into account certain potential confounds such asWe can use the findings from the U. Colorado study to then go back and figure out what happens when relationships flourish rather than falter, looking for ways that couples improve not only on how well they get along as a couple, but how they become happier as individuals.
Study allowed Whisman and his colleagues to trace patterns of change from the years 2014 to 2018 and negative . The data also included personality assessments and a scale measuring.
Depressive episodes were assessed by asking respondents to complete a standard MDE screening instrument and also to indicate if they had been diagnosed by a doctor depression. Women and men in the top 20% of their respective relationship distress scores were found, as predicted, to have a greater propensity of developing MDE. This predictive formula held true even when the possible confounding factors were controlled.
As the authors concluded, “it is something about the relationship itself for a person in a distressed relationship that increases risk for depression, rather than characteristics of the person” . Why this happens can be understood, they go on to suggest, from the standpoint of the “marital discord model.
” In this model, frequent and intense negative interactions detract from psychological well-being by creating spiraling patterns ofWhat’s particularly impressive about this study is that, coming from the HRS, it looks not at short-term relationships, but at ones that have existed over the decades of middle and later adulthood. These people are in it for the long haul. In studies that use younger samples, it’s not possible to know what will happen in the future if/when their relationship deteriorates.
They won’t be available to study after that, because they will no longer be together. To zero in on the idea of what constitutes a set of “positive supportive interactions,” think about what happens when partners go out of their way to help each other cope with life’s exigencies.
Not only are they there to provide actual help when help is needed . Intimate relationship distress and incidence of major depression in a U.S. probability sample: A preregistered propensity score analysis. Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph. D.Self Tests are all about you.
Are you outgoing or introverted? Are you a narcissist? Does perfectionism hold you back? Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today.
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