The Role of Leisure Activities on Partnered Men’s and Women’s Types of Depressive Symptoms Over Time

Abstract

Leisure activities may mitigate depressive symptoms, but it is unclear in what way leisure activities may be linked with depressive symptoms in partnered men and women. Using 1,156 heterosexual German couples from the Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (Pairfam) study and a Family Systems theoretical framework, this study tested separate growth mixture models of partnered men’s and women’s depressive symptom trajectories. The results supported three types of depressive symptom trajectories for both men and women: a low-stable type, moderate-increasing type, and moderate-decreasing type. Results revealed that the more time partnered men and women spent with friends was associated with increases in depressive symptoms trajectories in the moderate-increasing types, but decreases in depressive symptom trajectories in the moderate-decreasing types. These findings provide a better understanding of the link between leisure activities and partnered men’s and women’s depressive symptoms over time. We suggest therapists explore in greater depth the effects of leisure activities on clients as certain leisure activities could be helpful or unhelpful depending on the type of depressive symptoms and gender.

Keywords:

• Couples
• depressive symptoms
• gender differences
• leisure activities
• romantic relationships

Acknowledgments

This paper uses data from the German Family Panel pairfam, coordinated by Josef Brüderl, Karsten Hank, Johannes Huinink, Bernhard Nauck, Franz Neyer, and Sabine Walper. Pairfam is funded as long-term project by the German Research Foundation (DFG).