The occurrence of depression is influenced by social relationships, however, most studies focus on individuals, not couples. We aimed to study how depressive symptoms of couples evolve over time and determine, which characteristics are associated with their distinct trajectories. A multi-centric cohort sample of 11,136 heterosexual couples (mean age = 60.76) from 16 European countries was followed for up to 12 years (SHARE study). Information on depressive symptoms measured by EURO-D scale was collected every 2 years. Dyadic growth mixture modeling extracted four distinct classes of couples: both non-depressed (76.91%); only women having consistently high depressive symptoms while men having consistently low depressive symptoms (8.08%); both having increasing depressive symptoms (7.83%); and both having decreasing depressive symptoms (7.18%). Couples with increasing depressive symptoms had the highest prevalence of relationship dissolution and bereavement. In comparison to the nondepressed class, individuals with any depressive symptoms were less psychologically and physically well. Our results suggest that distinct mechanisms are responsible for couples' various longitudinal trajectories of depressive symptoms.

2nd Faculty of Medicine Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Department of General Psychology University of Padua Padua Italy

Faculty of Arts Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Faculty of Humanities Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Institute of Psychology Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University Warsaw Poland

National Institute of Mental Health Klecany Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Kessler RC, Bromet EJ. The epidemiology of depression across cultures. Annu Rev Publ Health. 2013;34:119–38. doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031912-114409. PubMed DOI PMC

Laursen T, Musliner K, Benros M, Vestergaard M, Munk-Olsen T. Mortality and life expectancy in persons with severe unipolar depression. J Affect Disord. 2016;193:203–7. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.12.067. PubMed DOI

Noël P, Williams JW, Unützer J, Worchel J, Lee S, Cornell J, et al. Depression and comorbid illness in elderly primary care patients: impact on multiple domains of health status and well-being. Ann Fam Med. 2004;2:555–62. doi: 10.1370/afm.143. PubMed DOI PMC

Lee S, Tsang A, Breslau J, Aguilar-Gaxiola S, Angermeyer M, Borges G, et al. Mental disorders and termination of education in high-income and low and middle-income countries: epidemiological study. Br J Psychiat. 2009;194:411–7. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.108.054841. PubMed DOI PMC

Levinson D, Lakoma MD, Petukhova M, Schoenbaum M, Zaslavsky AM, Angermeyer M, et al. Associations of serious mental illness with earnings: results from the WHO World Mental Health surveys. Brit J Psychiat. 2010;197:114–21. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.109.073635. PubMed DOI PMC

Whisman MA, Uebelacker LA, Weinstock LM. Psychopathology and marital satisfaction: the importance of evaluating both partners. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2004;72:830–8. doi: 10.1037/0022-006X.72.5.830. PubMed DOI

Breslau J, Miller E, Jin R, Sampson NA, Alonso J, Andrade LH, et al. A multinational study of mental disorders, marriage, and divorce. Acta Psychiat Scand. 2011;124:474–86. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2011.01712.x. PubMed DOI PMC

Lovejoy M, Graczyk P, O’Hare E, Neuman G. Maternal depression and parenting behavior: a meta-analytic review. Clin Psychol Rev. 2000;20:561–92. doi: 10.1016/S0272-7358(98)00100-7. PubMed DOI

Wilson S, Durbin CE. Effects of paternal depression on fathers’ parenting behaviors: a meta-analytic review. Clin Psychol Rev. 2010;30:167–80. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2009.10.007. PubMed DOI

Burke L. The impact of maternal depression on familial relationships. Int Rev Psychiatr. 2003;15:243–55. doi: 10.1080/0954026031000136866. PubMed DOI

Luo S. Assortative mating and couple similarity: patterns, mechanisms, and consequences. Soc Pers Psychol Compass. 2017;11:e12337. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12337. DOI

Mathews CA, Reus VI. Assortative mating in the affective disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Compr Psychiat. 2001;42:257–62. doi: 10.1053/comp.2001.24575. PubMed DOI

Nordsletten AE, Larsson H, Crowley J, Almqvist C, Lichtenstein P, Mataix-Cols D. Patterns of nonrandom mating within and across 11 major psychiatric disorders. JAMA Psychiat. 2016;73:354–61. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.3192. PubMed DOI PMC

Heun R, Maier W. Morbid risks for major disorders and frequencies of personality disorders among spouses of psychiatric inpatients and controls. Compr Psychiatr. 1993;34:137–43. doi: 10.1016/0010-440X(93)90059-D. PubMed DOI

Merikangas KR. Divorce and assortative mating among depressed patients. Am J Psychiat. 1984;141:74–76. doi: 10.1176/ajp.141.1.74. PubMed DOI

Štěrbová Z, Valentová J. Influence of homogamy, complementarity, and sexual imprinting on mate choice. Anthropologie. 2012;50:47–59.

Maes HH, Neale MC, Kendler KS, Hewitt JK, Silberg JL, Foley DL, et al. Assortative mating for major psychiatric diagnoses in two population-based samples. Psychol Med. 1998;28:1389–401. doi: 10.1017/S0033291798007326. PubMed DOI

Kelley H, Thibaut JW. Interpersonal relations: a theory of interdependence. Wiley, 1978.

Formánek T, Csajbók Z, Wolfová K, Kučera M, Tom S, Aarsland D, et al. Trajectories of depressive symptoms and associated patterns of cognitive decline. Sci Rep. 2020;10:1–11. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-77866-6. PubMed DOI PMC

Schultebraucks K, Choi KW, Galatzer-Levy IR, Bonanno GA. Discriminating heterogeneous trajectories of resilience and depression after major life stressors using polygenic scores. JAMA Psychiat. 2021;78:744–52. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.0228. PubMed DOI PMC

van de Schoot R, Sijbrandij M, Winter SD, Depaoli S, Vermunt JK. The GRoLTS-checklist: guidelines for reporting on latent trajectory studies. Struct Equ Model. 2016;24:451–67. doi: 10.1080/10705511.2016.1247646. DOI

Lohoff FW. Overview of the genetics of major depressive disorder. Curr Psychiat Rep. 2010;12:539. doi: 10.1007/s11920-010-0150-6. PubMed DOI PMC

Kendler KS, Aggen SH, Neale MC. Evidence for multiple genetic factors underlying DSM-IV criteria for major depression. JAMA Psychiat. 2013;70:599–607. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.751. PubMed DOI PMC

Merikangas KR. Assortative mating for psychiatric disorders and psychological traits. Arch Gen Psychiat. 1982;39:1173–80. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.1982.04290100043007. PubMed DOI

Avinun R. The E Is in the G: gene-environment-trait correlations and findings from genome-wide association studies. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2019;15:81–89. doi: 10.1177/1745691619867107. PubMed DOI PMC

Juszkiewicz A, Lachowicz-Tabaczek K, Wróbel M. Self-esteem, gender, and emotional contagion: what predicts people’s proneness to “catch” the feelings of others? Pers Individ Differ. 2020;157:109803.

Henrich J, Heine SJ, Norenzayan A. The weirdest people in the world? Behav Brain Sci. 2010;33:61–83. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X0999152X. PubMed DOI

Börsch-Supan A, Brandt M, Hunkler C, Kneip T, Korbmacher J, Malter F, et al. Data resource profile: the survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe (SHARE) Int J Epidemiol. 2013;42:992–1001. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyt088. PubMed DOI PMC

Kim SY. Sample size requirements in single- and multiphase growth mixture models: a Monte Carlo simulation study. Struct Equ Model. 2012;19:457–76. doi: 10.1080/10705511.2012.687672. DOI

Prince M, Reischies F, Beekman AT, Fuhrer R, Jonker C, Kivela SL, et al. Development of the EURO-D scale-a European, Union initiative to compare symptoms of depression in 14 European centres. Br J Psychiat. 1999;174:330–8. doi: 10.1192/bjp.174.4.330. PubMed DOI

Horackova K, Kopecek M, Machů V, Kagstrom A, Aarsland D, Bankovska Motlova L, et al. Prevalence of late-life depression and gap in mental health service use across European regions. Eur Psychiat. 2019;57:19–25. doi: 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2018.12.002. PubMed DOI

Cermakova P, Formanek T, Kagstrom A, Winkler P. Socioeconomic position in childhood and cognitive aging in Europe. Neurology. 2018;91:e1602. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000006390. PubMed DOI PMC

Formanek T, Kagstrom A, Winkler P, Cermakova P. Differences in cognitive performance and cognitive decline across European regions: a population-based prospective cohort study. Eur Psychiat. 2019;58:80–86. doi: 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2019.03.001. PubMed DOI

Lanza ST, Tan X, Bray BC. Latent class analysis with distal outcomes: a flexible model-based approach. Struc Equ Model. 2013;20:1. doi: 10.1080/10705511.2013.742377. PubMed DOI PMC

Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. Classifying educational programmes manual for ISCED-97 implementation in OECD countries. OECD Publications Service, 1999.

Borrat-Besson C, Ryser V-A, Gonçalves J. An evaluation of the CASP-12 scale used in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to measure Quality of Life among people aged 50+. FORS Working Paper series, 2015. 10.6103/SHARE.w5.100.

Lawton MP, Brody EM. Assessment of older people: self-maintaining and instrumental activities of daily living. Gerontologist. 1969;9:179–86. doi: 10.1093/geront/9.3_Part_1.179. PubMed DOI

Gosling SD, Rentfrow PJ, Swann WB. A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. J Res Pers. 2003;37:504–28. doi: 10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1. DOI

Mechanisms creating homogamy in depressiveness in couples: A longitudinal study from Czechia

Observed Aspects of Mate Value and Sociosexuality Account for Mate Preferences: Data from a Large, Representative Study from Czechia