PARTNERS STRESS UNDERESTIMATIONS LEAD TO WOMENS DISTRESS - A STUDY OFPREGNANT INNER-CITY WOMEN

The authors examined how men's underestimation of the stress that thei r pregnant female partners reported influenced women's psychological d istress and their sense that they were not supported. Participants inc luded 68 pregnant inner-city women and their partners, among whom Afri can Americans and European Americans were represented. Women who repor ted a greater number of stressful life events had increased depression if their partners did not report them as encountering these events. H owever, if their partners reported them as encountering a high number of stressful events, the otherwise negative impact of stress was buffe red. Partners' stress report had no appreciable effect when women repo rted a low number of stressful events. This partner underestimation ef fect was independent of the influence of women's report of social supp ort.