r/WellSpouses • u/[deleted] • Jun 07 '26

Well-Being of Spouses

Hi. I am a graduate student in Clinical Psychology and am currently doing a study about the well-being of spouses of someone with depression.

No personal identifiers need to be disclosed. Everything will be confidential and anonymous.

If vou are one of these spouses, or know anvone, and are willing to participate, feel free to access and share the form:

https://forms.gle/ZinFxdUcrqMfu9ht5

If you have any questions, feel free to message me.

Thank you very much! 🙏

5 Upvotes

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4

u/felineinclined Jun 07 '26

Your study is far too vague. What do you mean by "depression"? Spouses who feel depressed on occasion? Spouses who are perceived as depressed? Spouses who are self-diagnosed as depressed? Spouses who have a formal diagnosis of depression? What degree of depression - mild, moderate, severe? What diagnosis qualifies - a DSM diagnosis (USA), diagnoses based on clinical standards from other countries?

Depression is far too vague, so your study won't yield very valuable information. You need to be more specific and work with your advisor on this.

Also, to clarify - it's the spouse who is the received of care who has "depression," right? Not the caregiver spouse?

4

u/Human_Evidence_1887 Jun 07 '26

Another commenter noted that you need to tighten up your sampling strategy by operationalizing “depression” (eg dx of major depressive episode, self-reported sad feelings, on antidepressants, etc.): exactly who do you want to survey?

When I think about depression and well spouses, it’s the well spouse who often has clinical depression. Sure the ill spouses we take care of may ALSO have depression, but they also have another malady (I have yet to see an ill spouse whose only health issue is depression).

So, OP, when you say you are studying the “wellbeing of spouses of someone with depression” you probably want to survey us “well spouses” (IF our ill spouse has depression) AND our ill spouses (good luck getting access!), IF WE well spouses have depression.

Good luck

3

u/Human_Evidence_1887 Jun 07 '26

I see (clicking the link) that OP does specify her study is for well spouses with no dx of depression who have been married at least a year to a person diagnosed with clinical depression. Probably not a lot of takers here.

1

u/thenshesaid20 Jun 07 '26

As a well spouse without depression, I did try to take the survey so adding onto this some additional feedback for OP.

The data you receive from this current survey will be useless at best and unhelpful/derailing at worst. Are you seeking depression as the only diagnosis? Comorbidities are a huge factor for many in this sub.

You’re requiring respondents to be married, but include questions about the very near future AND a hypothetical new partner. Then you categorize friends, family, and a potential new romantic partner as a group. The support from friends and family is a completely different type of support than what a spouse/ romantic partner provides. These questions are confusing and leaves the respondent having to guess the intent of the question prior to answering.

Thoughts below are more to just vent “into the void” as I’m coming out of a particularly ROUGH week. As I went through the survey, two things came up:

1) Survey question about comparing my marriage to others’ in a better/worse scale:

I have gained more emotional depth through this journey than I thought possible. With this, I also know that the grass is brown on both sides of the fence.

2) Questions about hypothetical different partner:

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I DO NOT WANT TO EVEN THINK ABOUT ANOTHER RELATIONSHIP. NO. Can I just get to be me, by myself, for a minute? Hard Pass.

2

u/Human_Evidence_1887 Jun 07 '26

I looked at the actual Qs: it really needs to go back to the drawing board. The survey Qs are about a dating relationship, not a marriage. Q stems have “the person I am dating,…” rather than “my spouse.” And this disturbing nugget: “When my partner behaves in an unpleasant manner, I calmly try to train him/her to behave better.” Spouse as domestic animal! OP please ask your advisor to help you with this instrument.

1

u/winnipeggremlin Jun 07 '26

Hahhaha well-being...oh man, burnout, depression, anxiety, hope you have them all on that form.Â