GENDER DIFFERENCES IN MARITAL SUPPORT FOLLOWING A SHARED LIFE EVENT

Previous work has established that women with good marriages are less at risk of depression of clinical severity following a crisis than wom en in poor quality relationships. Evidence for such protectiveness is less clear for men. The paper examines the relationship between marita l quality, onset of depression, and gender following a severely threat ening life event. The results show that good quality of marriage relat ed to lower rates of depression for both men and women, although the o verall rate for women was higher. For women with a good marital relati onship, but for whom support from partner was not forthcoming at the t ime of the crisis (i.e. the person was ''let down''), risk was increas ed, confirming a result from a study in Islington. The current study s hows that the same set of findings holds for men. Gender differences d id emerge when the subjective need for support within the marital rela tionship is taken into account, with women expressing greater need. Ho wever, such a desire for support was not necessarily translated into s upport-seeking behaviour as in a poor relationship turning to a partne r was frequently inopportune. Women were also more likely to seek supp ort outside the marriage; as in the earlier Islington research this wa s related to a lower risk of depression for those in a poor relationsh ip. An unexpected finding was that men who received support outside ma rriage had an increased risk of depression. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.