Marital stress, psychological distress, and healthful dietary behavior: A longitudinal analysis

This longitudinal study examined the role of marital and psychological dist ress on healthful dietary change. A theoretical model is proposed that spec ified barriers to healthful dietary behavior as mediating the effect of dep ressive symptoms, role disagreement inequity, and education on dietary chan ge over time. Subjects were 97 married couples interviewed in their homes a t 2 separate times. Selection in the first wave was by random area sampling based on population concentration. The findings provide evidence of the ne gative influence of interpersonal and intrapsychic distress on positive die tary change. For wives, marital and psychological distress and the barriers to dietary change were important factors in actual changes in dietary beha vior. For both husbands and wives, higher barriers were associated with les ser positive dietary change.