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The current study examined associations between self-esteem, romantic partners' negative views (devaluation), and depressive symptoms among women who were high and low in depression vulnerability. Twenty-eight women with a recent history of depression (high depression-vulnerable) and forty-five women with no recent history of depression (low depression-vulnerable), completed the study with their male partners. Women completed measures of depression and self-esteem, and men completed a measure of partner devaluation. Among high depression-vulnerable women, path analysis revealed that partner devaluation interacted with self-esteem such that the combination of low self-esteem and high partner devaluation was associated with high levels of depression. Among the low depression-vulnerable women, only low self-esteem was associated with depressive symptoms.
According to cognitive theories of depression, negative self-views play a crucial role in the onset and maintenance of depression (e.g., Beck 1967; Ingram, 1984). In support of this assumption, research has demonstrated that negative self-relevant material is more frequently endorsed by depressed individuals than by other groups and that depressed individuals are more likely than other groups to spontaneously report pejorative thoughts about themselves (Hollon & Kendall, 1980; Hollon, Kendall, & Lumry, 1986) and score low on measures of self-esteem (e.g., Pyszczynski & Greenberg, 1987; Wenzlaff, 2005). Negative self-views are not only correlated with depression, but there is some evidence that they have a causal role in bringing about depression. Numerous studies using mood priming and relatively sensitive information-processing measures have supported the association between negative self-views and vulnerability to depression (Hartlage, Arduino, & Alloy, 1998; Hedlund & Rude, 1995; Ingram, Miranda, & Segal, 1998). Further, negative self-perceptions in individuals with a history of depression have been found to be associated with the recurrence of depressive symptoms (Lewinsohn, Hoberman, & Rosenbaum, 1988; Miller, Kreitman, Ingham, & Sashidharan, 1989; Rude, Wenzlaff, Gibbs, Vane, & Whitney, 2002), as well as clinically diagnosed episodes of depression (Ingham, Kreitman, Miller, Sashidharan, & Surtees, 1987; Rude, Valdez, Odom, & Ebrahimi, 2003).
In much the same way that having an internal world comprised of negative self-perceptions contributes to depression, having a social world in which one is devalued would seem likely to contribute to depression as well. In fact, a key component of Coyne's interactional theory of depression is his hypothesis that interpersonal rejection, or devaluation, in close...