Psychological Distress Transmission in Same-sex and Different-sex Marriages

Ample work stresses the interdependence of spouses’ psychological distress and that women are more influenced by their spouse’s distress than men. Yet previous studies have focused primarily on heterosexual couples, raising questions about whether and how this gendered pattern might unfold for men and women in same-sex marriages. We analyze 10 days of diary data from a purposive sample of men and women in same-sex and different-sex marriages (n = 756 individuals from 378 couples) to examine psychological distress transmission between spouses and how this process may differ for men and women in same-sex and different-sex marriages. We find that women are more strongly influenced by their partners’ distress than men, regardless of whether they are married to a man or a woman, and that this relationship is particularly strong for women with male spouses.