Shared lives, shared stress: Witnessing and spillover effects in spousal mental health interactions

Abstract

The study examines the impact of significant events experienced by a partner on one’s mental health. It differentiates between the “witnessing effect” (direct observation of the partner’s events) and the “spillover effect” (mental health alterations mirrored from the partner). Contrary to past research, these effects are distinguished. We find that the strength of the witnessing effect varies by event type and gender, whereas the spillover effect is stable across events and genders. These findings highlight an oversight in previous research, which used exclusive partner events as instruments to estimate the spousal spillover effect without distinguishing it from the witnessing effect. The surprising finding of no gender bias in the spillover effect challenges the notion that women are more emotionally contagious. The findings suggest that the strong and gender-specific witnessing effect appears to outweigh the gender-neutral spillover effect in previous research.