Sbarra David A, Emery Robert E, Beam Christopher R, Ocker Bailey L
University of Arizona, Department of Psychology.
University of Virginia, Department of Psychology.
Clin Psychol Sci. 2014 May;2(3):249-257. doi: 10.1177/2167702613498727. Epub 2013 Aug 13.
Marital dissolution is commonly assumed to cause increased depression among adults, but causality can be questioned based on directionality and third variable concerns. The present study improves upon past research by using a propensity score matching algorithm to identify a sub-sample of continuously married participants equivalent in divorce risk to participants who actually experienced separation/divorce between two waves of the nationally representative study, Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS). After correcting for participants' propensity to separate/divorce, increased rates of depression at the second assessment were observed only among participants who were (a) depressed at the initial assessment, and (b) experienced a separation/divorce. Participants who were not depressed at the initial assessment but who experienced a separation/divorce were not at increased risk for a later major depressive disorder (MDE). Thus, both social selection and social causation contribute to the increased risk for a MDE found among separated/divorced adults.
人们通常认为婚姻解体会导致成年人抑郁情绪增加，但基于方向性和第三变量问题，因果关系可能受到质疑。本研究通过使用倾向得分匹配算法改进了以往的研究，以识别出一组持续婚姻参与者的子样本，这些参与者在离婚风险上与在具有全国代表性的研究“美国中年发展（MIDUS）”的两波调查之间实际经历分居/离婚的参与者相当。在纠正了参与者分居/离婚的倾向后，仅在以下参与者中观察到第二次评估时抑郁率增加：（a）在初次评估时抑郁，以及（b）经历了分居/离婚。在初次评估时未抑郁但经历了分居/离婚的参与者，患后期重度抑郁症（MDE）的风险并未增加。因此，社会选择和社会因果关系都导致了在分居/离婚成年人中发现的患MDE风险增加。
