Mark A. Whisman

Factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory—Second Edition (BDI‐ii) in a student sample

A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to evaluate the factorial validity of the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II) in a large sample of undergraduates (N = 576). Results suggest that the revised measure is internally consistent and consists of two underlying factors assessing cognitive-affective and somatic symptoms of depression. Results support the use of the BDI-II as a severity measure of symptoms of depression.

Designing, Testing, and Interpreting Interactions and Moderator Effects in Family Research

This article is a primer on issues in designing, testing, and interpreting interaction or moderator effects in research on family psychology. The first section focuses on procedures for testing and interpreting simple effects and interactions, as well as common errors in testing moderators (e.g., testing differences among subgroup correlations, omitting components of products, and using median splits). The second section, devoted to difficulties in detecting interactions, covers such topics as statistical power, measurement error, distribution of variables, and mathematical constraints of ordinal interactions. The third section, devoted to design issues, focuses on recommendations such as including reliable measures, enhancing statistical power, and oversampling extreme scores. The topics covered should aid understanding of existing moderator research as well as improve future research on interaction effects.

Marital distress and DSM-IV psychiatric disorders in a population-based national survey.

The associations between marital distress and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) Axis I psychiatric disorders were evaluated in a United States population-based survey of married individuals in which there was no upper age exclusionary criterion (N = 2,213). Marital distress was associated with (a) broad-band classifications of anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders and (b) all narrow-band classifications of specific disorders except for panic disorder, with the strongest associations obtained between marital distress and bipolar disorder, alcohol use disorders, and generalized anxiety disorder. The association between marital distress and major depressive disorder increased in magnitude with increasing age; there was no evidence that the association between marital distress and other psychiatric disorders was moderated by gender or age. Results support continued research on the association between couple functioning and mental health.

Mediators and moderators of change in cognitive therapy of depression.

This article reviews the theoretical and empirical literature associated with the mediators and moderators of change in cognitive therapy (CT) of depression. Covariation between change in cognition and change in depression, specific effects for cognitive versus behavioral components of CT, specific effects for CT versus other treatments, moderating influence of nonspecific and technical aspects of the therapeutic environment, and moderating influence of client characteristics are reviewed. The clinical implications of prior research and suggestions for future research on identifying the critical ingredients of change in CT of depression are discussed.

Sexual Desire and Relationship Functioning: The Effects of Marital Satisfaction and Power

The present study examined the association among marital satisfaction, marital power, and sexual desire in a sample of 60 community couples. We predicted that marital satisfaction would be positively correlated with sexual desire and that this association would be moderated by marital power, such that marital satisfaction would be more strongly correlated with sexual desire among individuals who perceive themselves as having less power in their relationship. Results indicated that marital satisfaction was significantly associated with sexual desire, but there was no evidence for the moderating effects of various forms of marital power.

Neuroticism as a common feature of the depressive and anxiety disorders: a test of the revised integrative hierarchical model in a national sample.

The revised integrative hierarchical model of depression and anxiety (S. Mineka, D. Watson, & L. A. Clark, 1998) proposes that high levels of neuroticism are shared between the depressive and anxiety disorders. This perspective was evaluated with data from the National Comorbidity Survey (N = 5,847), a population-based community sample. Analyses were based on both a broadband (i.e., diagnostic class) and a narrowband (i.e., specific disorder) approach. Results supported the model insofar as high neuroticism was shared across the depressive and anxiety disorders and was particularly elevated in people with comorbid depression and anxiety. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the association between personality and the depressive and anxiety disorders in a community sample and for the revised integrative hierarchical perspective.

Sexual infidelity in a national survey of American women: differences in prevalence and correlates as a function of method of assessment

The purposes of this study were (a) to estimate the annual prevalence of, and to identify the predictors of, sexual infidelity in a population-based sample of married women (N = 4,884); and (b) to evaluate whether the prevalence and predictors of infidelity varied as a function of whether the assessment of infidelity was based on a face-to-face interview versus a computer-assisted self-interview. Annual prevalence of infidelity was much smaller on the basis of the face-to-face interview (1.08%) than on the computer-assisted self-interview (6.13%). Although many of the predictor variables replicated results from previous studies (e.g., demographic variables, religiosity, sexual experience), findings also indicated that childhood sexual abuse (i.e., forced sex) predicted greater probability of infidelity. Finally, the magnitude of the association with infidelity for 4 of the 9 predictor variables differed between the 2 methods for assessing infidelity. This studys findings underscore the importance of assessing infidelity with methods such as computer-assisted self-interviews that minimize the influence of social desirability and impression management.

Longitudinal association between marital dissatisfaction and alcohol use disorders in a community sample.

The prospective association between marital dissatisfaction and alcohol use disorders (abuse and/or dependence) was evaluated in a randomly selected community sample. Married individuals (N = 1,675) from the New Haven Epidemiologic Catchment Area project who did not have a current alcohol use disorder at baseline were followed prospectively for 12 months. Results indicated that baseline marital dissatisfaction was significantly associated with alcohol use disorder diagnosis during follow-up, with dissatisfied spouses being 3.7 times more likely than satisfied spouses to have a diagnosis of current alcohol use disorder at follow-up. The longitudinal association between baseline marital dissatisfaction and current alcohol use disorder diagnosis at follow-up remained significant when controlling for baseline demographic variables and history of alcohol use disorders.

Intimate Relationships and Psychopathology.

Relationship functioning and individual mental health and well-being are strongly associated with one another. In this article, we first review the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between relationship discord and various types of psychopathology, We then review findings suggesting that relationship discord is associated with poorer outcome for individual-based treatments for psychopathology and that, generally, relationship discord does not improve following individual-based treatments for psychopathology. Finally, we present a model for conceptualizing work with couples in which one partner has a psychiatric disorder and review the efficacy of couple-based interventions in the treatment for psychiatric disorders, with a focus on substance-related, mood, and anxiety disorders.

Correlates of Depression and Marital Dissatisfaction: Perceptions of Marital Communication Style:

It has been suggested that variables that predict marital dissatisfaction may also serve to predict depression symptoms, especially in women. The current study explored, in a community sample of married individuals, the associations among marital dissatisfaction, depression symptoms, and perceptions of marital communication styles (i.e., self-silencing and the demand–withdraw communication pattern). Analyses were conducted separately by sex in order to test for expected sex differences. For men and women, depression symptoms were correlated with self-silencing and wife-demand and husband-withdraw communication; furthermore, for women, self-silencing mediated the association between marital dissatisfaction and depression symptoms. As expected, depression symptoms were more highly associated with being in the demanding role for women than for men. Results suggest that perceptions of interactions with one’s spouse, as well as gender-related expectations of how both husband and wife should interact, may be important phenomena to address when considering depression and marital dissatisfaction in both men and women.