Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies from the clinical marital literature document negative associations between adult partners’ anxiety and depression and their marital satisfaction and functioning (Brock & Lawrence, 2011; Proulx, Helms, & Buehler, 2007; Whisman, 2001; Whisman, Uebelacker, & Weinstock, 2004). For example, a meta-analysis of 26 cross-sectional studies of community samples found a moderately-sized link between marital quality and depressive symptoms for both men and women (Whisman, 2001). A more recent study found that husbands’ relationship satisfaction and sense of balance and control in the relationship and wives’ perceptions of the relationship's emotional intimacy were negatively related to their own anxious-depressed symptoms across a seven-year period (Brock & Lawrence, 2011).
