Table 4.
Comparisons of personality traits and psychosocial functioning of couples in which one partner presents BD and the other major depression, couples in which one partner presents BD and the other no major depression, and healthy control couples
| Couples | Couples with a partner with BD and MDD vs healthy control couples | Couples with a partner with BD no MDD vs healthy control couples | Couples with a partner with BD and MDD vs couples with a partner with BD no MDD | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One partner with BD | Two healthy control partners | |||||||
| MDD | No MDD | |||||||
| M (SD) | M (SD) | M (SD) | F | η2 | ||||
| Personality (NEO-PI-R)a | n = 18 | n = 40 | n = 47 | |||||
| Neuroticism | 57.07 (7.13) | 54.61 (7.53) | 44.94 (7.35) | 18.82** | .27 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Extraversion | 48.02 (6.64) | 47.81 (6.44) | 52.10 (5.56) | 3.87* | .07 | ✔ | ||
| Openness | 49.49 (7.06) | 49.76 (8.06) | 52.10 (6.46) | .08 | .00 | |||
| Agreeableness | 47.34 (8.41) | 51.35 (5.64) | 52.16 (5.71) | 3.09* | .06 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Conscientiousness | 48.00 (6.05) | 46.7 (8.42) | 51.06 (5.45) | 3.30* | .06 | ✔ | ||
| Negative life events (LES)b | n = 16 | n = 32 | n = 33 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dependent | 2.25 (1.30) | 2.70 (1.54) | 1.32 (1.17) | 7.19** | .16 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Independent | .38 (.50) | .41 (.48) | .35 (.41) | .33 | .01 |
| Coping skills (CISS)c | n = 18 | n = 39 | n = 47 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Task-oriented | 46.28 (6.21) | 47.23 (7.99) | 51.60 (7.20) | 2.85 | .05 | ✔ | ||
| Emotion-focused | 51.98 (6.02) | 52.83 (7.65) | 46.19 (6.08) | 6.74** | .12 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Avoidance-oriented | 51.26 (7.21) | 51.36 (8.64) | 45.38 (7.60) | 7.03** | .12 | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social support (ASSI)d | n = 18 | n = 40 | n = 47 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size of social network | 9.42 (5.42) | 10.50 (5.89) | 17.20 (9.22) | 6.39** | .11 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Satisfaction with social network | 26.22 (2.73) | 25.54 (2.97) | 28.27 (1.85) | 10.98** | .18 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Amount of social contact | 6.23 (4.92) | 7.34 (6.49) | 12.45 (8.10) | 4.52** | .08 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Satisfaction with social contact | 4.19 (.686) | 4.19 (.80) | 4.70 (.496) | 5.12** | .09 | ✔ | ✔ |
| Marital adjustment (DAS)e | n = 15 | n = 30 | n = 47 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consensus | 49.97 (5.33) | 50.60 (7.39) | 53.52 (5.44) | 3.27* | .07 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Affectional expression | 6.72 (2.94) | 8.77 (1.79) | 9.23 (1.95) | 8.34** | .16 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Satisfaction | 32.83 (6.65) | 34.68 (8.35) | 39.72 (4.22) | 8.34** | .16 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Cohesion | 13.21 (5.10) | 14.45 (4.82) | 16.15 (3.32) | 3.06 | .07 | ✔ |
| Verbal aggression (CTS)f | n = 15 | n = 30 | n = 45 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inter-partner | 20.95 (16.63) | 17.28 (20.93) | 9.44 (9.34) | 2.02 | .05 |
Due to non-independence of data and to obtain a global estimate of couple functioning, mean scores across all available parents were used for these analyses when there was more than one parent in a family [number of single-parent families = 11 (7 BD)]
T-scores were used for the Personality and Coping Skills subcategories, *p < .05, **p < .01
BD: bipolar disorder; MDD: major depression disorder; ✔: significant group difference
aFrom the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised
bFrom the Life Events Scale
cFrom the Coping Inventory of Stressful Situations
dFrom the Arizona Social Support Interview
eFrom the Dyadic Adjustment Scale
fFrom the Conflict Tactic Scale