Interpersonal Distress as a Covariate of Mental Health in Depression: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Although empirical studies have shown that interpersonal distress is related to mental health indicators in depression, there are no previous meta-analyses evaluating this association. We performed a systematic review and meta-analytic study to estimate the association between interpersonal distress and non-relational mental health indicators (NR-MHI) in depression. Following PRISMA criteria, we performed a systematic search on PubMed and PsycINFO. We conducted multilevel meta-analytic (i.e., random-effects) models to estimate a pooled correlation coefficient representing the strength of the association between interpersonal distress and NR-MHI. Thirty-eight studies (reporting 88 effect sizes) met inclusion criteria. The models showed a significant correlation between interpersonal distress and NR-MHI (r = 0.41, p < 0.001), with moderate heterogeneity, Q(87) = 710.38, p < 0.001. A funnel plot did not present evidence of publication bias. We found no significant moderation effects of specific depressive diagnoses, type of study or levels of interpersonal distress. This study is the first to report a meta-analytic synthesis of the association between interpersonal distress and NR-MHI in depression, showing that in individuals with depression, NR-MHI was positively associated with interpersonal distress, presenting a medium-to-large pooled effect size.