Abstract
We examined how women's clinical depression was impacted by the coping of their significant other, by interviewing pregnant, inner-city women (N= 54) and those people whom these women felt were closest to them (N= 54) (e.g. partner, family member, friend). In particular we were interested in communal aspects of coping (i.e. its social component). We predicted that only significant others' active-prosocial coping would be related to women's lower depression. However, we found that both their active-prosocial and active-antisocial coping was related to women's lower depression, suggesting it was most important for significant others to be active, rather than passive. The importance of considering the ecological context of coping is discussed.
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