Sex differences in prospective associations between marital quality and depressed mood

Our study replicates earlier findings linking marital quality and depressed mood and investigates whether this association is moderated by sex. Forty-seven recently married couples completed two assessments over a 3-month period. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that sex moderated the association between initial marital quality and later depressed mood. More specifically, lower scores on initial marital quality predicted greater subsequent increases in depressed mood for females than for males. In addition, for both husbands and wives, initially higher scores for depressed mood predicted greater declines in marital quality scores 3-months later.