New research examines why a person’s mental health is important for maintaining a satisfying marriage and how either partner can influence the other’s marital happiness. These findings are reported on in the October issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
In a sample of 774 married couples from seven states in the U.S., researchers Mark A. Whisman, Ph.D., and Lauren M. Weinstock, M.S., of the University of Colorado in Boulder and Lisa A. Uebelacker, Ph.D., of Brown University Medical School assessed each partners’ level of depression and anxiety with the MMPI-2 scale along with their marital satisfaction to find out if one partners’ pathology was associated with his or her view of the relationship and/or the partner’s view of the relationship. Specifically, the researchers examined how much each person’s marital satisfaction was predicted by his or her own level of depression and anxiety and/or by his or her spouse’s level of depression and anxiety.
Results from the research show that each spouse’s level of anxiety and depression predicted not only their own marital satisfaction but their spouse’s as well. The more anxious and/or depressed either spouse was, the more dissatisfied he or she was with the marriage. Interestingly, depression was found to influence both husbands and wives more than anxiety in how satisfied they felt about the marriage. But only a spouse’s depression level affected the other spouse’s marital satisfaction. When a spouse suffers from anxiety, but not depression, the affect on the marital partner was less.