Support, Criticism, Emotion and Depressive Symptoms: Gender Differences in the Stress-Depression Relationship

It has been suggested that the level of support and criticism provided by significant others is associated with subjects' level of depressive symptoms. The present study was designed with two goals in mind: (1) to examine the relationship between partners' level of support and criticism during a conflict resolution task, and subjects' emotional response; and (2) to assess the relationship between subjects' emotional response, and their level of depressive symptoms. Subjects consisted of 34 community residing couples. Levels of emotional support provided by both males and females were significantly related to the extent to which both partners felt pleased and happy. The emotional-response of males was not significantly related to their level of symptoms. In contrast, the emotional response of females was significantly related to their level of depressive symptoms. Our findings provide preliminary support for a theoretical model in which emotional support affects the emotional response of female partners, which in turn, affects their level of depressive symptomatology.