Whose Fault is it Anyway? The Role of Responsibility Attributions in the Association Between Wives' Marital Discord and Depression

Previous research has demonstrated that negative attributions are associated with both marital discord and depression, but few studies have explored the role of attributions in the strong relation between marital discord and depression. Using a sample of 89 married couples, we investigated the role of responsibility attributions, partner blame, and self-blame in wives' marital discord and depression. Guided by the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), we found that husbands' responsibility attributions and verbal partner blame were associated with wives' marital discord but not with wives' depression. Interestingly, wives' self-blame was not associated with wives' depression, nor did it moderate the association between wives' marital discord and depression. We conclude that moderate levels of both self and partner responsibility attributions about the causes of negative marital events may be most adaptive in preventing marital discord and depression among married couples.