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Evaluation of capacity to love, depression, and anxiety in women according to their relationship status

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

I. Busch  and
N.D. Kapusta
I. Busch
Affiliation:
Policlinico G.B. Rossi, UOC Psicosomatica e Psicologia Clinica, Verona, Italy
N.D. Kapusta
Affiliation:
Medizinische Universität Wien, Universitätsklinik für Psychoanalyse und Psychotherapie, Wien, Austria

Abstract

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Introduction

Associations between psychiatric disorders and relationship status as well as the impact of psychiatric symptoms on the quality of romantic relationships have already been demonstrated but the association between psychiatric symptoms and the capacity to maintain romantic relationships has been rarely examined.

Aim

To investigate anxiety, depressive symptoms and capacity to love (CTL) in single women (sw) and those in a relationship (rw).

Methods

Two hundred healthy adult females (100 sw, 100 rw; mean age 27.8 ± 8.1 yrs and 27.3 ± 8.1 yrs, respectively) completed the PHQ-4 and the CTL-Inventory. Differences in anxiety and depressive symptoms and CTL between both groups were assessed by independent-samples t-tests. Moreover, correlations between CTL, anxiety and depressive symptoms in each group were investigated.

Results

Sw showed a significantly higher level of depressive symptoms (meansw ± SDsw 1.5 9 ± 1.66, meanrw ± SDrw 1.07 ± 1.37, P = 0.016) and a significantly lower CTL (meansw ± SDsw 126.81 ± 12.60; meanrw ± SDrw 137.13 ± 11.26, P ≤ 0.001) than rw but no differences occurred for anxiety symptoms.

Among sw, CTL negatively correlated with depressive (r = −0.37, P < 0.001) and anxiety symptoms (r = −0.44, P < 0.001) whereas in rw, a negative correlation occurred only between CTL and depressive symptoms (r = −0.43, P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Our results suggest that single women, compared to women in a relationship, show a lower CTL and suffer more from depressive symptoms.

Furthermore, a lower CTL is associated with more anxiety and depressive symptoms, thus suggesting that future therapeutic approaches to depression and anxiety should also take into account relationship conflicts and CTL. As a crucial personality trait, CTL might be an important moderator of coping with common psychiatric symptoms.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Type
e-Poster viewing: Women, gender and mental health
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 41 , Issue S1: Abstract of the 25th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2017 , pp. s900
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2017
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