Psychological distress and partnership quality in parents: A 20-year longitudinal study

This preregistered study examined bidirectional associations between parental psychological distress (PD) and relationship quality (RQ) from pregnancy to children's adolescence, assessing both within-individual and cross-partner effects, and testing the strength and gender differences in these associations. Previous studies have analyzed the links between parental PD and RQ, but research covering the whole range of active parenting years in both parents is limited. Moreover, prior research has primarily focused on relationship intimacy, often overlooking autonomy and the balance between the two. This longitudinal study involved 375 intact Finnish couples who answered questionnaires on PD and RQ during pregnancy, postpartum, and the child's middle childhood and late adolescence. The associations between PD and RQ were assessed with random intercept cross-lagged panel models based on both sum and balance scores of intimacy and autonomy, and individual scales. At the state level, PD was associated with higher overall RQ (i.e., a combination of intimacy and autonomy) and higher autonomy at unique parenting stages. However, PD predicted lower intimacy and less relationship enmeshment (i.e., a combination of more autonomy than intimacy) during early parenting years. PD predicted RQ more than the reverse and fathers' RQ was more strongly predicted by mothers' distress than the corresponding prediction from fathers to mothers. At the trait level, PD and RQ showed consistently negative associations. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding how PD shapes RQ over time, emphasizing the dynamic interplay between autonomy and intimacy in family relationships throughout the parenting years. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).