Description of Sample
Wives featured the following primary anxiety disorders: panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA; n = 2; 6%), GAD (n = 9; 27.2%), SAD (n = 15; 45.5%), OCD (n = 5; 15.1%), and PTSD (n = 2; 6%). The majority were receiving treatment for their anxiety (84.8% in psychotherapy, 24.2% receiving psychotropic medication), although most were enrolled in this study during the first 3 weeks of their current treatment (n = 24; 85.7%). Ten (30.3%) met criteria for comorbid dysthymic disorder, and 19 (57.6%) met criteria for at least one additional anxiety disorder, including GAD (n = 4), SAD (n = 11), PDA (n = 1), PTSD (n = 2), and anxiety disorder not otherwise specified (n = 1). Husbands’ mean scores on the STAI–A (M — 12.90, SD = 3.02) and the STAI–D (M = 24.67, SD = 6.57) subscales were comparable to those reported by Bieling and colleagues (1998) for their control sample (STAI–A M = 10.20, SD = 2.45; STAI–D M = 23.18, SD = 4.58). Husbands’ mean raw score on the SCL-90 GSI subscale (M = 0.55, SD = 0.12) was below the clinical threshold suggested by Schauenburg and Strack (1999), with the majority of husbands (73.5%) scoring below the cut-off. Although husbands’ diagnostic status was not formally assessed, they did not demonstrate generally elevated levels of psychological distress.
Wives and husbands reported nearly identical levels of global relationship satisfaction on the DAS (see Table 1). Total DAS scores were comparable to those reported for a sample of agoraphobic married and cohabiting women (M = 103.2, SD = 17.2; Chambless et al., 2001). Based on empirically established cutoffs (i.e., 98; Eddy, Heyman, & Weiss, 1991), 29.5% of couples in the current sample had at least one partner who scored within the distressed range of marital functioning. Mean levels of daily negative mood aggregated across the study period were significantly higher for wives than for husbands, as would be expected given wives’ clinical status. ICCs, representing the proportion of variance between-persons indicated that significant variability existed between and within persons on affect measures for wives (anxiety ICC = .44; anger ICC = .34; depression ICC = .40) and husbands (anxiety ICC = .42; anger ICC = .33; depression ICC = .31).
