The relationship between depression and marital maladjustment. A descriptive study.

Measures of depression and marital adjustment were completed by patients hospitalized on an inpatient psychiatric unit and their spouses. Therapists also provided ratings of the patients' depression and couples' marital adjustment. Results indicated a significant negative correlation between patient self-reports of depression and marital adjustment, which was supported by the correlation between therapist ratings. These results demonstrate generalization of the previously established depression-marital maladjustment relationship from outpatients to inpatients. Analyses of sex differences indicated that, although there were no differences between depressed men and women in the severity of the depression, depressed men rated their marriages as significantly better adjusted than depressed women. Clinical implications of these findings with respect to depression and marital maladjustment are discussed.