The perception of fairness in infant care and mothers' postpartum depression

Maternal appraisals of the birth of a child: Portuguese version of the Stress Appraisal Measure

Objective: We assessed (1): the factorial and convergent validity of the Portuguese version of the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM); (2) maternal primary and secondary appraisals of the birth of a child; and (3) the influence of appraisals on stress.Background: Parental stress is common during transition to parenthood and may be detrimental for parents and infants. Following Lazarus and Folkman's transactional model, the degree of stress is influenced by cognitive appraisals of an event, which are assessed by the SAM.Methods: This was an observational, cross-sectional study. Two hundred and forty-five women with a child of up to 24 months of age filled out several self-report measures, in an online platform.Results: The SAM factorial structure included three primary (Threat, Centrality, and Challenge) and two secondary (Controllable-by-Self and Controllable-by-Others) appraisals. All subscales had adequate internal consistency. The birth of a child was mainly perceived as a challenge, and seldom appraised as a threat. Threat and centrality appraisals positively predicted stress.Conclusion: Assessing maternal appraisals of the birth of a child is relevant to foster adaptation to parenthood. The SAM is an adequate assessment tool. As cognitive appraisals are modifiable, women with higher threat appraisals should be targeted for psychological interventions.

Fair enough? Decreased equity of dyadic coping across the transition to parenthood associated with depression of first-time parents

The transition to parenthood (TTP) is a stressful life event for most couples. Therefore, the way both partners jointly cope with stress (i.e., dyadic coping) is important for the prevention of individual adjustment problems (e.g., depression). For dyadic coping to be effective in reducing depressive symptoms, efforts of both partners should be equal. However, many couples experience a decrease of equity in task division within the domestic sphere across the TTP. The current study investigates the equity of a specific skill within the ‘relationship sphere’, because similarly to a decreased equity in household and childcare, a decreased equity of dyadic coping is likely to be associated with poorer individual adjustment. We collected longitudinal self-report data on dyadic coping and depressive symptoms from 104 mixed-gender first-time parents (n = 208 individuals) from pregnancy until 40 weeks postpartum. We created an equity score for men and women that measured their perceived difference between received and provided dyadic coping. On average, women reported providing more and receiving less dyadic coping than men. While both genders agreed on this distribution, men did perceive a higher equity of dyadic coping than women. Furthermore, the decrease of equity perceived by women across TTP was not visible in men. In line with our assumptions based on the equity theory, perceived equity of dyadic coping was associated with depressive symptoms in a curvilinear manner: Decreases in women’s perceived equity in either direction (over- or underbenefit) were associated with more depressive symptoms in women and their male partners. This association was found above and beyond the beneficial effect of dyadic coping itself. This implies that not only how well partners support each other in times of stress, but also how equal both partners’ efforts are, is important for their individual adjustment across TTP.