Abstract

This study explored the spillover and crossover associations between depression and satisfaction with life, food-related life, and family life in dual-earner families. Questionnaires were administered to 303 dual-earner couples with adolescent children in Temuco, Chile. Both members of the couple answered the Depression Subscale of the Depression Anxiety and Stress scale – 21, Satisfaction with Life scale, Satisfaction with Food-related Life scale, and the Satis- faction with Family Life scale. Using the actor-partner interdependence model and structural equation modeling, we found that a man’s depression was negatively associated with his own levels of satisfaction with life, family life, and food-related life as well as with his partner’s (the woman’s) levels of satisfaction with life and family life. The woman’s depression was negatively associated with her own levels of satisfaction with life, family life, and food-related life as well as with her partner’s (the man’s) satisfaction with family life, but not with his level of life satisfac- tion. No crossover effects were found between the two members of the couple’s depression and their satisfaction with food-related life. These findings suggest that to enhance overall life satis- faction as well as satisfaction in the family and food domains in dual-earner families, interventions to reduce depression should include both partners.