Abstract
This study examined the mediating role of dyadic coping (DC) in the association between internalizing symptoms and dyadic adjustment in a sample of 184 couples expecting their first child. Each partner completed self-report questionnaires assessing symptoms of depression and anxiety, dyadic adjustment and DC during the second trimester of pregnancy. An extension of the actor-partner interdependence model for testing direct and indirect effects was used. Compared to men, women presented higher levels of internalizing symptoms and dyadic adjustment and engaged more in DC by self. Significant indirect effects of internalizing symptoms on dyadic adjustment via common DC and DC by one’s partner were found. Specifically, higher internalizing symptoms were associated with lower common DC and DC by one’s partner, which, in turn, were associated with lower dyadic adjustment. This mediation occurred either within person as well as across partners and occurred similarly for women and men. These results suggest that primiparous couples may benefit from DC-enhancing interventions, such as the cognitive-behavioral couple-based programs Couples Coping Enhancement Training (CCET) and Coping-Oriented Couple Therapy (COCT), to assist them in responding sensitively to their partners’ psychological symptoms, which may have a positive effect on marital adjustment.
Highlights
Becoming a parent represents a source of joy and satisfaction and has the capacity to strengthen the bonds within couples and families
These results suggest that primiparous couples may benefit from dyadic coping (DC)-enhancing interventions, such as the cognitive-behavioral couple-based programs Couples Coping Enhancement Training (CCET) and Coping-Oriented Couple Therapy (COCT), to assist them in responding sensitively to their partners’ psychological symptoms, which may have a positive effect on marital adjustment
The adjustment of first-time parents to the transition to parenthood, which is an important dyadic event, is likely to be influenced by their own individual coping strategies and by their shared efforts to cope with stressors
Summary
Becoming a parent represents a source of joy and satisfaction and has the capacity to strengthen the bonds within couples and families. It has been suggested that the association between stress (and psychological symptoms) and relationship outcomes can be explained by adaptive processes, which can be generally defined as the ways in which couples cope with conflict and marital difficulties (Kluwer, 2010) From this perspective, the ability of both partners in a couple to adjust well to the transition from partner to parent is likely to be influenced by their individual coping strategies (McKellar et al, 2009); because expecting and having a child affects both members of the couple as a unit, we argue that coping with this event encompasses strategies at the dyadic level. It is important to increase our understanding of which shared (dyadic) strategies, such as dyadic coping (DC), should be promoted during pregnancy to help first-time parents successfully adjust to this transition
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