The relationship between intercultural marriage and depression

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-63)The main purpose of this correlational study was to explore the relationship between intercultural marriage and depression. Research documenting marital status as a risk factor for depression has been well established. A number of studies have supported the assertion that those individuals involved in intercultural marriages face more stressors than do their same-culture peers. Few studies have explored the relationship between intercultural marriages and depression. It was hypothesized that individuals in intercultural marriages would be more likely to exhibit symptoms of depression than their same-culture peers. To test this possibility, a survey was administered to graduate Educational Psychology and Counseling students from California State University, Northridge (N = 49). The results indicated that the difference between intercultural marriages and depression was not statistically significant with the means for individuals in intercultural marriages (M = 5.60, SD = 4.34), and individuals in monocultural marriages (M= 6.13, SD = 5.01) being nearly identical. Implications from this study suggest that individuals in intercultural marriages are not more prone to experiencing an increase in depressive symptoms than their same-culture peers