Mood Reactivity to Marital Conflict: The Influence of Marital Dissatisfaction and Depression

In a sample of married couples, approximately half of which included a wife with major depression, we evaluated whether mood reactivity (i.e., preto post-interaction changes in mood) to marital conflict resolution interactions was associated with marital dissatisfaction, depression, or both. In support of the marital discord model of depression, results indicated that greater marital dissatisfaction was associated with greater increases in depressed mood for both wives and husbands; depressed wives also reported greater increases in depressed mood than nondepressed wives. In comparison, husbands of depressed wives did not differ in their mood reactivity from husbands of nondepressed wives, which failed to support Coyne's (1976b) interpersonal theory of depression. Results suggest that the mood-reactivity paradigm may provide an important framework for evaluating partners' experiences of changes in moods following intimate interactions.