Cooperative extension initiatives in marriage and couples education

Cooperative extension has a long‐term history of delivering family life education. Further, the organization has developed numerous research‐based resources and undertaken statewide initiatives in marriage and couples education. Most promising of all is the work of a group of extension specialists to create a practical, research‐based curriculum that may reach communities in the United States through the established network of extension educators and their collaborators. We review various family relationship models and describe how the design of the new couples' curriculum is based on those models.     

Ajustement psychologique des couples confrontés à un cancer du sein : perceptions des comportements de soutien du conjoint

This cross-sectional study for couples explores the relationship between the perceptions within the couple of the spouse's supportive behaviors and the psychological adjustment of both partners during treatment for breast cancer. Forty-eight women operated on for a non-metastatic breast cancer and their spouses completed questionnaires assessing psychological adjustment (STAI, BDI-SF), and the spouse's support behaviors during discussions about the disease (PSE). Support behaviors are positively valued by both partners, especially non-verbal comfort and concrete actions. Support by minimization is associated with fewer depressive symptoms in patients and spouses. For spouses, the positive perception of support by concrete action is associated with a lower depression score. Moreover, high adjustment difficulties for spouses are linked to greater perception differences between partners on emotional support and minimization. These results highlight the importance of non-verbal comfort and minimization for the perception of social support within the couple, and the usefulness of support by concrete actions proposed by spouses. Advices for professionals are available.     

Subjective well-being in infertile couples

The subjective well-being of infertile couples is affected by numerous variables. One hundred and ten infertile couples were investigated using the von Zerssen symptom checklist. With the exception of sterile women of fertile men (group 1: female infertility), women and men in the overall randomized sample and the diagnostic groups (group 2: subfertility of the man; group 3: sterility of both partners; group 4: idiopathic sterility) report fewer general symptoms than the overall population of patients with somatic and psychiatric diseases. Subfertile men show lower rating in the symptom checklist than the norm. Involuntarily childless women express more symptoms than their partners.     

Assessing infertility-related stress: the factor structure of the Fertility Problem Inventory in Italian couples undergoing infertility treatment

Abstract

The factor structure of the Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI) and its invariance across gender were examined in Italian couples undergoing infertility treatment. About 1000 subjects (both partners of 500 couples) completed two questionnaires prior to commencing infertility treatment at a private Clinic in Palermo, Italy. Confirmatory Factor Analysis demonstrated that the original factor structure of the FPI was partially confirmed. Two correlated factors (Infertility Life Domains and Importance of Parenthood) were obtained via a post hoc Exploratory Factor Analysis. Finally, the invariance of this factor structure across gender was confirmed. The study supported the relevance of two interrelated factors specific to infertility stress which could help clinicians to focus on the core infertility-related stress domains of infertile couples.     

Drawing Upon the Strengths of Couples in the Treatment of Chronic Drug Addiction

This paper examines chronic drug addiction from a systemic perspective, using couples as the major unit of attention to be worked with in therapy. This dyadic relationship is highlighted in that (1) many of the addicts studied were involved with a significant other, in addition to the families of origin; and (2) this relationship is viewed as a source of strength which is available to the therapist, in addressing the addiction. The couple is seen as a system which has joined together in an attempt to individuate from the families of origin and master the launching phase of family development. However, the couple's drug consumption and related problems involve their extended families in their plight. This often distracts and consequently protects the larger ecosystem from the stressful demands of a developmental transition. The structural/strategic perspective (Fisch, et al., 1982; Haley, 1973, 1976; Madanes, 1981; Minuchin, 1981; Selvini-Palazwli et al., 1978; and Stanton, 1981, 1982) is utilized as a means of understanding this contextual dilemma for the couple and their extended families. The model provides a focus for changing dysfunctional sequences between the families of origin and the couple. In addition, it will provide strategies for changing sequences between partners which activate the addict's vulnerability to drug use.     

Rôle du périnato-sexologue dans une équipe interdisciplinaire périnatale au Canada

Interdisciplinary health care teams are models of health care that are the way of the future. In this model, the sexologist has a unique and important role, particularly in perinatal health care where sexuality is a central component of health. Perinatal sexuality is a newly emerging discipline in which the perinatal sexologist has a double role to play: 1) to train other perinatal health professionals in sexuality; and 2) to educate and to intervene with future and new parenting couples by answering their multiple intimate and sexual questions and concerns during the transition to parenthood.     

Product review

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the phenomenon of same-sex attraction in married men. As well as looking at a variety of reasons that gay and bisexual men provide for getting married, the author describes a model that incorporates a variety of possible theoretical explanations. Finally, practical implications for therapists are provided, focusing on identity development and support.     

A Typology of Work‐Family Arrangements Among Dual‐Earner Couples in Norway

A symmetrical family model of two workers or caregivers is a political goal in many western European countries. We explore how common this family type is in Norway, a country with high gender‐equality ambitions, by using a multinomial latent class model to develop a typology of dual‐earner couples with children based on the partners' allocations of paid and unpaid work. Using data on 2,617 respondents from the Norwegian Generations and Gender Survey, we estimate 4 classes, of which 2 are characterized by a fairly equal sharing between the partners and 2 have more traditional arrangements. Equal sharing is practiced by 4 out of 10 couples and is most likely when the partners are well educated and work regular hours and the father is in public‐sector employment. A traditional practice is likely when the partners have less education, the mother has health problems, the father has private‐sector employment, and the partners work irregular hours.     

Dyadic coping and dyadic adjustment in couples with women with high depressive symptoms during pregnancy

ABSTRACT

Objective: The present study aimed to compare dyadic coping (DC) and dyadic adjustment in couples in which the woman was experiencing high levels of depressive symptoms and in couples in which the woman presented minimal or no depressive symptoms.

Background: Pregnancy may be considered a situation of dyadic stress, during which the presence of high levels of depressive symptoms may impair the ways couples cope together with stress; however, this topic has not yet been studied.

Methods: Pregnant women and their partners (n = 289 couples) completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Dyadic Coping Inventory, and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale during the second trimester of pregnancy.

Results: Couples in which the woman was experiencing high levels of depressive symptoms (n = 57) reported less DC enacted by oneself and by the partner (particularly, less supportive and more negative DC), common DC and overall d5yadic adjustment, compared to couples in which the woman was not experiencing high levels of depressive symptoms (n = 232).

Conclusion: These findings highlight the need to assess couples’ dyadic adjustment and DC strategies, which is particularly important when women screened positive for high levels of depressive symptoms during pregnancy.