When love hurts: Testing the stress generation hypothesis between depressive symptoms, conflict behaviors, and breakup rumination in romantic couples

Introduction: In this study we investigated the stress generation hypothesis in romantic relationships, testing how individuals’ depressive symptoms can lead to interpersonal stress that worsens their depressive symptoms. Interpersonal stress was operationalized as conflict enactment (critical, hostile, and rejecting behaviors toward one's romantic partner) and breakup rumination (persistent and intense thoughts of ending the relationship). Methods: Participants included 226 heterosexual adult romantic couples, with a mean age of 21.48 years for women and 22.35 years for men. A short-term longitudinal design was employed, involving three waves of data collection, including a daily diary portion. Depressive symptoms were measured in the lab at the beginning of the study (Wave 1) and again one month later (Wave 3). Following Wave 1, conflict enactment and breakup rumination were measured online over a 14-day period (Wave 2) through daily diary entries, which were then averaged across the 14 days into a single score for each construct. Results: Using actor-partner interdependence mediation modelling, we found women's and men's depressive symptoms at Wave 1 positively predicted their own conflict enactment and breakup rumination at Wave 2, as well as their own depressive symptoms at Wave 3 (actor effects). Women's depressive symptoms at Wave 1 positively predicted men's conflict enactment at Wave 2 (partner effect). Additionally, women's conflict enactment at Wave 2 positively predicted their own depressive symptoms at Wave 3 (actor effect) and mediated the increase in their own depressive symptoms from Wave 1 to 3 (indirect effect). Discussion: Findings illustrate how depressive symptoms are embedded in an interpersonal context and exacerbated by conflictual behaviors within romantic relationships over a period of one month.