Abstract
Associations between depressive symptoms and relationship distress are well-established, but little is known about these linkages among Black couples, or about the role of sociocultural factors in these processes. In this study, we applied a dyadic analytic approach, Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling (APIM), to address 2 goals: to assess the prospective, bidirectional associations between depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction over a 1-year period in a racially homogenous sample of 168 heterosexual Black couples, and to explore whether these associations were moderated by husbands' and wives' experiences of racial discrimination and/or the centrality of race in their personal identities. Findings revealed that depressive symptoms predicted relative declines in marital satisfaction reported by both self and partner for both husbands and wives. Moderation analyses indicated that, when wives reported greater racial centrality, their depressive symptoms predicted relative declines in husbands' marital satisfaction. In contrast, when wives reported lower racial centrality, their depressive symptoms were not associated with husbands' satisfaction. Together, the findings highlight the interdependence between spouses' mental health and relationship satisfaction and the role of sociocultural factors in these linkages.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 12-23 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Family Psychology |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 1 2020 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was conducted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the master of science degree at the Pennsylvania State University for August I. C. Jenkins and was supported by Grant R01 HD32336 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Susan M. McHale and Ann C. Crouter, the Bunton Waller Fellowship to August I. C. Jenkins, the Karl R. and Diane Wendle Fink Early Career Professorship for the Study of Families to Steffany J. Fredman, Grants KL2 TR002015 and UL1 TR002014 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science to support Steffany J. Fredman's time, and Grant UL1 TR002014 to support Timothy R. Brick's time. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Results of this study were presented at the 2018 conference for the National Council on Family Relations, San Diego, California. We thank Gregory Fosco for feedback on the manuscript, Peter Molenaar for guidance with data analysis, and Christiana Awosan for assistance with interpretation of the findings.
Funding Information:
This study was conducted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the master of science degree at the Pennsylvania State University for August I. C. Jenkins and was supported by Grant R01 HD32336 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Susan M. McHale and Ann C. Crouter, the Bunton Waller Fellowship to August I. C. Jenkins, the Karl R. and Diane Wendle Fink Early Career Professorship for the Study of Families to Steffany J. Fredman, Grants KL2 TR002015 and UL1 TR002014 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science to support Steffany J. Fredman’s time, and Grant UL1 TR002014 to support Timothy R. Brick’s time. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Results of this study were presented at the 2018 conference for the National Council on Family Relations, San Diego, California. We thank Gregory Fosco for feedback on the manuscript, Peter Molenaar for guidance with data analysis, and Christiana Awosan for assistance with interpretation of the findings.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Psychological Association.
Keywords
- African American
- Couples
- Discrimination
- Racial identity
- Romantic relationships
