Self-Verification and Depressive Symptoms in Marriage and Courtship: A Multiple Pathway Model

Self-verification theory posits that people prefer feedback from partners that confirms their self-views. Self-verifying feedback is positively associated with both enhanced relationship quality and increased stability of self-views. In turn, relationship quality is directly associated with depressi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marriage and family 1997-11, Vol.59 (4), p.903-914
Main Authors: Katz, Jennifer, Steven R. H. Beach
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cohabitation
Correlation
Courtship
Dating (Social)
Depression
Depression (Psychology)
Depressive disorders
Evidence
Family
Feedback
Females
Interpersonal communication
Interpersonal Relationship
Interpersonal Relationship Satisfaction
Marital Satisfaction
Marriage
Marriage and Family Relations
Marriage Counseling
Mental health
Negative feedback
Personal relationships
Self
Self Concept
Self Esteem
Self image
Self verification
Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations
Social dating
Social interaction
Social psychology
Sociology
Sociology of the family. Age groups
Symptoms
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Self-verification theory posits that people prefer feedback from partners that confirms their self-views. Self-verifying feedback is positively associated with both enhanced relationship quality and increased stability of self-views. In turn, relationship quality is directly associated with depression. Therefore, we hypothesize that self-verifying feedback may lead to decreased depressive symptoms by increasing relationship satisfaction. In addition, self-verifying feedback leads to more stable self-views. Accordingly, we hypothesize that self-verifying feedback should lead to decreased depression for persons with high self-esteem, but increased depression for persons with low self-esteem. Samples of married (Study 1; n = 138) and dating (Study 2; n = 258) women were employed to test these hypotheses. Although complex, the predicted patterns were observable in both samples. Theoretical and clinical implications for marriage and courtship are discussed.
ISSN:0022-2445
1741-3737
DOI:10.2307/353791