Jennifer Aube

Intimate Relationships Moderate the Association Between Childhood Sexual Abuse and Depression

The authors examined adult attachment, intimacy, and partner physical abuse as potential mediators or moderators of the association between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and depression. Contrary to previous research, our results showed that being a survivor of CSA was not necessarily associated with higher levels of physical abuse or with lower levels of intimacy. Thus, the relationship variables did not mediate the association between CSA and depression. However, they did moderate this relationship. CSA survivors were both better protected from depression when they perceived their relationships to be of high quality and more vulnerable to depression when they did not than were nonsurvivors. However, an exception occurred when their relationships were physically abusive: CSA survivors who were being physically abused reported fewer depressive symptoms than did nonsurvivors in the same situation. This finding was interpreted in terms of attachment theory and the self-verification hypothesis.

Gender Differences and Gender-Related Constructs in Dating Aggression:

This study examined frequency and severity of physical, symbolic, and psychological aggression between college men and women in 85 heterosexual dating relationships and the extent to which gender role constructs predicted reports of aggression. Although there were no differences on self-reports of perpetration, men reported higher victimization levels than women and higher physical and psychological victimization levels than perpetration levels, whereas women reported higher symbolic perpetration levels than victimization levels. As a result, averaging reports from both partners suggested that women in existing college dating relationships are more aggressive than men. For both genders, stereotypically negative masculine (i.e., instrumental) characteristics were the best predictors of aggressive acts. Perpetrators’ positive masculinity and femininity predicted self-reports of decreased aggression that were not confirmed by their partners. Whereas men’s traditional attitudes about the male role predicted greater male aggression, women’s less traditional attitudes predicted increased severity of female physical aggression.

Mediators of the Link Between Childhood Sexual Abuse and Adult Depressive Symptoms

A history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is strongly associated with adult depression. The goal of the present study was to explore potential mediators of the CSA-depression link. The potential mediators were variables known to be associated with depression: interpersonal problems, gender role orientation, sociotropy, and self-silencing. The participants were 109 women and 83 men recruited from the community, approximately one third of whom had a history of CSA. The results indicated that gender role orientation, sociotropy, and self-silencing were not associated with a history of CSA. However, both men and women with a history of CSA reported more inter-personal problems than did individuals without this history. Whereas women reported being distant and controlling, men reported lacking assertiveness and taking too much responsibility in their relationships. These interpersonal variables partially mediated the link between CSA and depressive symptoms. Thus, in part, CSA survivors may be at risk for depression because they experience interpersonal problems.

Linking personal values to gender

Two studies were conducted to investigate the relation between personal values and aspects of gender. Study 1 used the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) to examine the nature of stereotypes concerning the values of the “typical man” and the “typical woman”. Results supported the hypothesis that men are viewed as more likely to endorse agentic values, such as freedom and accomplishment, whereas women are viewed as more likely to endorse communal values, such as friendship and equality. Study 2 assessed men and womens possession of stereotypic sets of masculine and feminine values, using the RVS, and examined their relation to gender-related personality traits, gender-related interests and role behaviors, and global self-perceptions of masculinity and femininity. Masculine values were found to be significantly related to socially desirable masculine traits, socially undesirable masculine traits, masculine interests and a global self-concept of masculinity. Feminine values were shown to be significantly related to socially desirable feminine traits, feminine interests, feminine role behaviors, and a global self-concept of femininity. These results suggest that gender-linked personal values merit inclusion with traits, interests, role behaviors, and global self-concepts as part of an emerging multidimensional conception of gender characteristics.

Gender Characteristics and Adjustment-Related Outcomes: Questioning the Masculinity Model

Previous reviews have concluded that there is a significant positive relation between masculinity and adjustment. The present study examined the generality of this relation by measuring gender characteristics and adjustment-related outcomes in a multidimensional manner. Results showed that although masculine traits were significantly positively associated with life satisfaction and positive affect for both men and women, they were not related to negative affect. A significant positive relation emerged between masculine traits and dyadic adjustment for both men and women, but this relation was not confirmed by partner reports. Masculine behaviors were unrelated to life satisfaction and positive affect but were positively related to negative affect. Feminine traits were predictive of the experience of pleasant interpersonal emotions and good dyadic functioning for men. A sex difference emerged for feminine interests and behaviors, indicating that they tended to be associated with negative outcomes for men but positive outcomes for women. Together, the results call into question the scope of the masculinity model of adjustment.

Gender characteristics and adjustment: A longitudinal study.

The present study used a prospective longitudinal design to investigate the long-term developmental implications of gender-related interests and traits. Archival data were available for Ss in the R. R. Sears, Maccoby, and Levin (1957) study. Men, who at age 12 endorsed interests and undesirable traits more typically associated with women, had poorer social-personal adjustment at ages 31 and 41. No effects were found for women. Feminine expressive traits at age 31 did not impact on 41-year-old adjustment for either men or women, whereas masculine instrumental traits were positively related for both. These findings support a multidimensional view of gender and indicate that harsher consequences follow when adolescent boys endorse nontraditional gender-related interests and undesirable traits than when girls do so.

Traits, Motives, and Depressive Styles as Reflections of Agency and Communion

Helgeson proposed a comprehensive model of agency, communion, and well-being that was based on a review of the literature on agentic and communal personality traits, power and intimacy motivation, and self-critical and dependent depressive styles. The present study empirically examined the overlap among these personality dimensions as well as their relations to positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, and social adjustment. A factor analysis of the various personality measures yielded two factors, labeled communion and agency. Power motivation loaded negatively with four communal qualities: communal traits, communal role behaviors, intimacy motivation, and dependency. Self-criticism loaded negatively with two other agentic qualities: agentic traits and agentic role behaviors. Both agency and communion were significantly positively associated with positive affect and social adjustment. Agency also was sig nificantly associated with higher life satisfaction and lower negative affect. The positive adjustment outcomes related to agency were confirmed by peer reports.

Agency, communion, and well-being : Extending Helgeson's (1994) model

V S. Helgeson (1994) offered a promising model to explain sex differences in well-being. Three meta-analyses of gender research relevant to this model are provided along with an empirical investigation of the relations between agency and communion, unmitigated agency and unmitigated communion, and self- and peer reports of well-being and distress in a sample of 201 college students. The results extended Helgesons model by showing that agency and communion can be assessed at the level of interests and role behaviors and that the association of agentic traits with well-being may be inflated by self-reports. Results also point to problems in distinguishing trait measures of agency from unmitigated communion and communion from unmitigated agency.

Personality, Interpersonal Context and Depression in Couples

The present study had two goals: first, to determine whether neediness and self-criticism are associated with distinct marital environments and, second, to evaluate two pathways by which marital environments may be related to personality and depressive symptoms. Personality vulnerability may be more strongly associated with depressive symptoms when the spouse’s behavior matches the vulnerability (i.e. a needy person’s spouse is emotionally distant). Alternatively, spousal behavior may elevate levels of neediness or self-criticism, which then increases depressive symptoms. We tested these alternatives in a sample of 64 couples recruited from the community. Among men, neediness was associated with depressive symptoms only if the marriage lacked intimacy. Self-criticism in both sexes and neediness in women were linked to the interpersonal context in a different manner: self-critics tended to have partners who have many complaints about them, and needy women tended to have partners who report low levels of marital intimacy. These results demonstrate that, to some extent, an individual’s self-criticism or neediness may be a realistic response to a distressing inter-personal context.

Does Self-Silencing Link Perceptions of Care from Parents and Partners with Depressive Symptoms?

Silencing the self is a theory of womens depression that proposes that depression results from women being inauthentic in key relationships. In this study, we linked this theory to a substantial empirical literature indicating that adult depression is associated both with perceptions that parents were rejecting during childhood, and with perceptions that the current romantic partner is critical. We hypothesized that rejecting childhood relations with parents and/or a romantic relationship with a critical partner might contribute to self-silencing, which, in turn, might lead to heightened vulnerability to depression. This hypothesis was tested in a community sample of 99 women and 47 men who reported being in committed romantic relationships. The results indicated that, among women, only current romantic relationships were associated with self-silencing. Silencing also mediated the association between perceived spousal criticism and depressive symptoms. Women who perceived their partner as critical and intolerant were more likely to present a compliant fagade while feeling angry, which was associated with higher levels of depression. Among men, self-silencing was associated both with perceptions of the father as cold and rejecting, and with perceptions of the romantic partner as critical and intolerant. Furthermore, self-silencing mediated the associations between depressive symptoms and perceptions of the father and of the current romantic partner. Thus, our study supports the hypothesis that self-silencing is associated with the current interpersonal context in particular.