Depression, adult attachment, and recollections of parental caring during childhood.

The onset and course of depressive symptoms are influenced by a variety of interpersonal factors. Attachment theory provides a developmental framework for understanding the relationship between depressive symptoms and insecure attachment to one's parents and current romantic partner. The present study examined attachment theory for understanding depression and marital adjustment among 84 psychiatric inpatients diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Participants completed a diagnostic interview and self-report measures of depressive symptoms, adult attachment, marital adjustment, and recollections of childhood relationships with parents. Avoidant (but not anxious) adult attachment mediated the link between current depressive symptoms and patients' recollections of relationships with opposite-sex parents. Although nearly three fourths of the current sample of depressed psychiatric inpatients acknowledged the presence of marital problems, the negative correlation between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment did not reach statistical significance. Attachment theory may aid therapeutic approaches to depression within the context of marriage and other long-term romantic relationships.