Sex differences in prospective associations between marital quality and depressed mood

Our study replicates earlier findings linking marital quality and depressed mood and investigates whether this association is moderated by sex. Forty- seven recently married couples completed two assessments over a 3-month per iod. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that sex moderated the asso ciation between initial marital quality and later depressed mood. More spec ifically, lower scores on initial marital quality predicted greater subsequ ent increases in depressed mood for females than for males. In addition, fo r both husbands and wives, initially higher scores for depressed mood predi cted greater declines in marital quality scores 3-months later.