Anna Marta Maria Bertoni

Dyadic coping responses and partners’ perceptions for couple satisfaction: An actor–partner interdependence analysis

Applying the actor–partner interdependence model to 114 couples’ data, we examined the link between partners’ change in reported dyadic coping responses from 6 months before marriage to 12 months after marriage and change in the perceptions of the other’s dyadic coping responses, the role of these associations for partners’ change in relationship satisfaction, and the role of gender in these relations. Results highlighted both accuracy and projection effects in partners’ perceptions. Moreover, one’s perceptions of the other’s dyadic coping responses mediated the effect of both one’s own and the others’ reported dyadic coping behaviors on one’s satisfaction. Findings are discussed in light of the implications for the study of dyadic coping and partner support as well as for intervention.

When good things happen: Explicit capitalization attempts of positive events promote intimate partners’ daily well-being

Sharing good news with the partner improves individual and relational well-being. While prior research has confirmed the benefits of such capitalization processes, knowledge on how the type of events that are shared, and the way they are shared, affects individuals and relationships is limited. We investigated diary data from 49 married couples to examine associations between the explicitness in the disclosure of events that were either internal or external to the couple, and individual and relational well-being, above and beyond the effects of the events and their disclosure. Multilevel analyses suggested that self-esteem and relationship quality increased as a function of women’s and men’s reports of internal and external positive events, but not as a function of the mere disclosure of the event. Being explicit when disclosing a positive event to the partner, however, was positively associated with individual and relational well-being in women and in men, beyond the effects of the event and its disclosure. We discuss how the current research contributes to the understanding of the capitalization process and its contribution to well-being, underscoring the importance of communication skills.

Engaged patients, engaged partnerships: Singles and partners dealing with an acute cardiac event

A few studies examine patients’ (and partners’) individual and relational functioning after an acute cardiac event and no research focuses on the individual and relational factors associated with the patient’s engagement in his/her disease management. The present study aimed at exploring these variables in male and female patients as well as their partners. We pursued our objectives by taking advantage of a dyadic research design that involved both partners in the data collection, when present, and by including women patients in the sample. Findings showed that patients in a couple, compared to single patients, perceive that their illness had less serious consequences for their life and they were more engaged in their health care; that patients and partners showed comparable levels of distress; and that less depressed, more confident, and better informed patients were more likely to actively engage in their treatment. Findings are discussed in light of their implications for clinical practice.

Preferred Interpersonal Distances: A Global Comparison

Human spatial behavior has been the focus of hundreds of previous research studies. However, the conclusions and generalizability of previous studies on interpersonal distance preferences were limited by some important methodological and sampling issues. The objective of the present study was to compare preferred interpersonal distances across the world and to overcome the problems observed in previous studies. We present an extensive analysis of interpersonal distances over a large data set (N = 8,943 participants from 42 countries). We attempted to relate the preferred social, personal, and intimate distances observed in each country to a set of individual characteristics of the participants, and some attributes of their cultures. Our study indicates that individual characteristics (age and gender) influence interpersonal space preferences and that some variation in results can be explained by temperature in a given region. We also present objective values of preferred interpersonal distances in different regions, which might be used as a reference data point in future studies.

Attractors and Barriers to Divorce: A Retrospective Study in Three European Countries

Abstract A total of 711 divorced individuals from Germany, Italy and Switzerland provided retrospective reports on their perception of at-tractors and barriers to divorcing. This study combines the evaluation of macro-level variables (represented by three different countries) and micro-level variables (psychological variables) to better understand attractors and barriers to divorce. Among attractors of divorce, alienation was found to be most relevant, while alternatives were less significant for the decision to divorce in all three countries. Among barriers, the presence of children (for all three countries) and financial strain (for German and Swiss women) was found to be of primary importance. In general among macro-level variables, economic assets seemed to be of greatest importance.

Is the Partner Who Decides to Divorce More Attractive? A Comparison Between Initiators and Noninitiators

Five hundred eighty divorced individuals from Germany, Italy, and Switzerland provided retrospective reports on the perceived similarities and differences between themselves and their former partner and on their own and their partners attractiveness. Initiators and noninitiators were compared with regard to these different variables. Results demonstrated that most divorcees perceived themselves to be quite similar to their former partner. Initiating women were more likely than noninitiating women to perceive themselves as different from their former partner in personality, norms, and needs and to evaluate their former partner to be less attractive. Initiating men were more likely than noninitiating men to perceive differences with regard to the personality between themselves and their partners.

Investigating the relation between shared stressors and marital satisfaction: The moderating effects of dyadic coping and communication

This study examined the role that communication and coping skills play in moderating the relation between shared stressors and marital satisfaction in a community sample of 119 married, heterosexual couples in Italy. Hierarchical regression models examined communication and coping skills as potential moderators of the association between two indicators of shared relationship stressors (sexual dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction with children) and overall relationship satisfaction. Findings showed there was a significant interaction effect of communication skills and sexual dissatisfaction on relationship satisfaction for both husbands and wives. There was also a significant interaction effect of coping skills and sexual dissatisfaction on relationship satisfaction for wives. For both husbands and wives, there were no significant interaction effects of communication skills nor dyadic coping and dissatisfaction with children on relationship satisfaction. Implications of these findings for prevention and intervention strategies for relationship distress and for further research are discussed.

Fertilizing a patient engagement ecosystem to innovate healthcare: Toward the first Italian Consensus conference on patient engagement

Currently we observe a gap between theory and practices of patient engagement. If both scholars and health practitioners do agree on the urgency to realize patient engagement, no shared guidelines exist so far to orient clinical practice. Despite a supportive policy context, progress to achieve greater patient engagement is patchy and slow and often concentrated at the level of policy regulation without dialoguing with practitioners from the clinical field as well as patients and families. Though individual clinicians, care teams and health organizations may be interested and deeply committed to engage patients and family members in the medical course, they may lack clarity about how to achieve this goal. This contributes to a wide “system” inertia—really difficult to be overcome—and put at risk any form of innovation in this filed. As a result, patient engagement risk today to be a buzz words, rather than a real guidance for practice. To make the field clearer, we promoted an Italian Consensus Conference on Patient Engagement (ICCPE) in order to set the ground for drafting recommendations for the provision of effective patient engagement interventions. The ICCPE will conclude in June 2017. This document reports on the preliminary phases of this process. In the paper, we advise the importance of “fertilizing a patient engagement ecosystem”: an oversimplifying approach to patient engagement promotion appears the result of a common illusion. Patient “disengagement” is a symptom that needs a more holistic and complex approach to solve its underlined causes. Preliminary principles to promote a patient engagement ecosystem are provided in the paper.

A qualitative evaluation of a preventive intervention for parents: The Groups for Family Enrichment_Parent version (GFE_P)

ABSTRACT The traditional objective of parenting enrichment programs is to train parents’ abilities and specific competences, but less attention is paid to promoting participants’ reflection on their parental identity. These programs are generally delivered to groups of parents, though the group is rarely considered a specific tool to promote changes in participants’ relational functioning. The Groups for Family Enrichment_Parent version (GFE_P; Iafrate, Donato, & Bertoni, 2010; Iafrate & Rosnati, 2007) focus on parental identity in addition to parental competences and skills and purposely use the group of parents as an educational tool, adopting a semistructured format. In this article, we first introduce the characteristics of GFE_P, then we present the results of a qualitative evaluation of an application of this intervention to a group of Italian parents. Findings from the process evaluation showed that participants actively contributed to the development of themes during the intervention. Result evaluation suggested that the recognition of key aspects of parental identity can be an important prerequisite to the acquisition of better parenting skills. Implications for parenting programs design are discussed.

Marital Satisfaction, Sex, Age, Marriage Duration, Religion, Number of Children, Economic Status, Education, and Collectivistic Values: Data from 33 Countries

Forms of committed relationships, including formal marriage arrangements between men and women, exist in almost every culture (Bell, 1997). Yet, similarly to many other psychological constructs (Henrich et al., 2010), marital satisfaction and its correlates have been investigated almost exclusively in Western countries (e.g., Bradbury et al., 2000). Meanwhile, marital relationships are heavily guided by culturally determined norms, customs, and expectations (for review see Berscheid, 1995; Fiske et al., 1998). While we acknowledge the differences existing both between- and within-cultures, we measured marital satisfaction and several factors that might potentially correlate with it based on self-report data from individuals across 33 countries. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the raw data available for anybody interested in further examining any relations between them and other country-level scores obtained elsewhere. Below, we review the central variables that are likely to be related to marital satisfaction. Gender Gender has long been identified in the literature as a predictor of marital satisfaction (Bernard, 1972). Specifically, early works suggested that men report being more satisfied with their marriages compared to women in both Western (e.g., Schumm et al., 1998) and non-Western (e.g., Rostami et al., 2014) cultures. However, sex differences in marital satisfaction may differ across cultures due to traditional sex roles (Pardo et al., 2012) and larger-scale cultural variables, such as sex egalitarianism (Taniguchi and Kaufman, 2013).