For my Doctoral Dissertation, I examined spousal support in newlywed couples. I was particularly interested how support-seeking behavior and stress reactivity predicted support provision from spouses. Using observational data from the SFU Transition to Marriage Study, I discovered that husbands were more likely to reciprocate their wives' positive support-seeking behaviors (e.g., describing the problem in detail) with positive support-providing behaviors (e.g., empathy, problem-solving) and more likely to inhibit negative reactions to wives' negative support-seeking behaviors (e.g., criticism, expressing pessimism) than when their roles were reversed and wives were seeking support from husbands. This study suggests that it may be helpful to move past the question of which spouse is a better support provider (husband or wife) and to start asking about the contexts or situations in which couples are more likely to communicate effective spousal support together. (Click here for to view my Ph.D. manuscript.)

For my Masters Thesis (click here to view my M.A. manuscript), I examined whether increases in non-marital chronic stress (e.g., from work, finances, friends, family-of-origin) exacerbated the risk of depressive symptoms in spouses with marital distress. I also examined whether increases in chronic stress made higher depressive symptoms more predictive of marital distress. The results indicated that when spouses reported increases in chronic stress, the association between their own marital distress and depressive symptoms strengthened. That is, spouses' own marital distress became more predictive of increases in their own depressive symptoms. Contrary to expectation, when spouses reported increases in chronic stress, the association between depressive symptoms and marital distress was weaker; that is, these spouses were less likely to report marital distress when they reported increases in depressive symptoms. Although the latter finding was unexpected, it may indicate that these spouses externalize the the reason for feeling depressed to sources outside the marriage (e.g., poor work situation, difficult in-laws) in marriage and less likely to blame their partners for their depressed mood.