SEQUENTIAL INTERACTION IN DEPRESSION - EFFECTS OF DEPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR ON SPOUSAL AGGRESSION

The present study was designed to examine patterns of interaction which may be uniquely associated with depressed-discordant couples. Accordingly, the behavior of depressed-discordant couples was contrasted with the behavior of nondepressed-discordant couples, and nondepressed-nondiscordant community couples. Codes were collapsed to follow Biglan et al.'s (1985) proposed categories of aggressive, facilitative, and depressive behavior. Elevated rates of depressive behavior were found only for wives diagnosed as depressed. An examination of conditional responding at Lag 1 indicated that the groups differed in the extent to which wife depressive behavior suppressed husband aggressive behavior, with the greatest suppression effect occurring in the nondepressed-discordant group. Follow-up analyses indicated that the length of marital discord was strongly correlated with the magnitude of the suppression effect in both discordant groups. The longer the duration of marital discord, the less the suppression of spousal aggression by depressive behavior. The results suggest that depressive behavior may suppress aggressive behavior early in the course of marital discord, and become less efficacious in the context of prolonged marital discord regardless of diagnostic status. © 1990 Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy. All rights reserved.