The prenatal loss of a child is a significant phenomenon, as 10-25% of women lose at least one pregnancy (Adolfsson, Larsson, 2006; Barton-Smoczyńska, 2006; Bowels i in., 2006).

Next to the the medical aspects of loss also it has a psychological dimension. It is ranks among the traumatic events. Frost and Condon (1996) reviewed 123 articles on the psychological consequences of miscarriage. A characteristic symptom of the test persons was felt mourning. The consequences of psychiatric appeared in the form of depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder. This proves the rightness treatment of miscarriage, and fetal death as a traumatic experience.

As follows from the research, support from the environment emerges as an important factor in coping with a loss. We want to show what kind of support and from whom receive people who have lost a child in the prenatal period. In our study involved 30 couples who have lost a child in the prenatal period, and 30 infertile couples. In the study was used Kmiecik-Baran's Social Support Scale.

Introduction. Pregnancy via assisted reproductive technology (ART) has been described as both rewarding and stressful, given the struggle to conceive. For future parents, prenatal testing may be an additional stressor, heightening their anxiety. This study assessed how couples provided and received support from their partners during this stressful time, and how that support affected their levels of anxiety and depression.

Method. N = 103 couples (52 who used ART and 51 who conceived spontaneously (SP)) completed questionnaires before and after the first-trimester screening and after the morphological ultrasound to assess social support (Dyadic Coping Inventory, Bodenmann, 2008), anxiety (STAI, Vonder, 1986), and depression (EPDS, Cox et al., 1987) using linear mixed models.

Results. Results indicated that: (1) the amount of support that ART and SP men reported to provide to their female partners did not differ (t = -0.598, ns); (2) ART women felt they received less support from their partners than SP women (t = -2.626**); (3) SP women were less anxious (t = 3.365***) and less depressed (t = 3.148**) when they felt supported by their partners, whereas being supported did not decrease anxiety or depression in ART women ; (4) higher levels of depression in ART men increased depressive symptoms in their partners (t = 2.575*).

Conclusion. Perceived support from their partners does not appear to benefit ART women even though it does help reduce anxiety and depression levels in SP women. Pregnancy after infertility challenges both partners: it may affect how they perceive and provide helpful support.

In the last decade research on the concept of coparenting has grown and is mostly understood as a central element of family life influencing parental and child adjustment as well as parenting practices and embedded in partnership quality and parental characteristics. Studies concerning coparenting often focus on divorced families or nuclear families, stepfamilies and cohabiting families are often neglected. Therefore the aim of this study is to test the theoretical “ecological model of Coparenting” (Feinberg 2003) for these family types and compare these two family types with nuclear families. To apply this approach we use the second wave of the German dataset „Growing up in Germany (AID:A). This nationally representative dataset with 22.000 target persons and extensive information about the household composition is well suited for these sorts of analysis. We use subsample of 0-17 year old target children living either with one social and one biological parent in one household (stepfamily) or with two biological cohabiting parents in one household and test die interplay between coparenting, partnership quality, parental depression, child adjustment (SDQ), parenting practices as well as parental adjustment (excessive demands on parental role) with structural equation models (SEM). First results reveal that there are similar patterns of coparenting relations in stepfamilies and nuclear families. We expect that this is also true for cohabiting families.

The transition to parenthood represents a critical and potentially stressful event. To effectively cope with this experience, coping strategies involve not only the individual partners, but the dyad as a whole. Numerous studies have highlighted how the ability of the parents-to-be to adjust to this critical transition is influenced by individual and interpersonal factors.

Aim of the present study is to examine dyadic coping styles in the two partners, specifically targeting aspects of congruence and incongruence. Furthermore, the relationship between dyadic coping and individual and interpersonal variables will be examined.

A sample of 78 couples expecting their first child were recruited while attending prenatal classes in Northern Italy. Each partner completed a set of questionnaires examining: dyadic coping (Dyadic Coping Inventory), anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), depression (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale), social support (Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support), and marital quality (Dyadic Adjustment Scale). Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations will be calculated among the major study variables. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) will be used to examine actor and partner effects of individual and relational outcomes on couples’ dyadic coping.

Overall couples presented high scores of adaptive coping and individual and relational well-being. Results of the APIM model will highlight that for couples who present good individual and relational outcomes more congruent dyadic coping strategies exist. Furthermore, the analysis of actor and partner effects will highlight relational exchanges that characterize the dyad in this time of adjustment.

Parenthood is important and demanding phase of life. E.g. tightening demands of working life and retrenchments of welfare state are setting challenges for parents. They need social support to cope with tasks and demands connected to parenthood.

Organized peer groups are noteworthy but quite meagerly studied sources of social support. In my presentation, I observe social support attracted from a peer group from mothers’ point of view. Presentation bases on my current PhD project, which finds out what kind of meaning social support gained from a peer group has for mothers. The study is a case study, which concerns certain group of mothers established in 1980s to finnish suburb. Both employees and volunteers are working in the group as persons in charge.

The data is gathered ethnographically. Firstly, the data consists of fieldnotes gathered during participant observation and the documents produced of operation of the group. Secondly, the data includes interviews of mothers and persons in charge participating in the operation of the group. The data will be analysed applying hermeneutic phenomenological approach.

According to the expected results, the peer group is a significant source of social support for mothers. They experience to get support both from each other and from persons in charge. It seems that social support has an empowering meaning for mothers.