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Negative Modes of Relating, Marital Quality and Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John Birtchnell
John Birtchnell*
Affiliation:
MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
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Abstract

Young married couples, with or without a depressed wife, were divided into three groups according to marital quality. Negative modes of relating were assessed by self-rating and partner-rating questionnaires. The intercorrelation of scores for different modes of relating was higher on partner-rating than on self-rating scales. There was a significant gradient of mean negative-relating scores across the three levels of marital quality. The partner-ratings of depressives and their husbands were higher on all negative-relating scales than those of non-depressed women and their husbands. The self-ratings of the depressives corresponded with these negative ratings while those of their husbands did not. The partner-rating scores differentiated between the depressives with poor marriages and those with better marriages.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 158 , Issue 5 , May 1991 , pp. 648 - 657
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1991 

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