[Getting involved with your baby: stories of fathers starting out in the maternity ward]. / S'engager auprès de son bébé : des histoires de pères qui débutent en maternité.

Gaining a better understanding of fathers' experiences in the maternity ward, and more specifically around childbirth, enables a better understanding of the process of becoming a father. The stakes are high, since these shared moments form part of the bonds that support the development of father-baby communication.

Exploring female students' perceptions of the use of digital technologies in managing academic stress.

Objective: The purpose of this research is to explore the perceptions of female students regarding the implementation of digital technologies for academic stress management. We aim to determine if the contribution of these technologies could offer to female students a better management of the stress related to their studies and thus, a better deployment of strategies to cope with academic difficulties. Method: A qualitative study using the focus group methodology was conducted. Our inductive and exploratory approach allowed us to focus on the experience and perception of eleven female students from the University of Mons. The cohort was divided into two groups according to their score on the Perceived Stress Scale-10. Results: The data collected was analyzed using the thematic analysis of which allowed us to identify fourteen sub-themes divided into three axes: coping strategies used to manage academic stress, students' needs to improve their management of academic stress, and the implementation of technology for managing academic stress. Conclusion: Our results show that the issues present in the academic context lead students to use various coping strategies, some of which are harmful to their physical and mental health. The implementation of digital technologies and biofeedback seems to be an approach that could help students adopt more functional coping strategies and alleviate their daily difficulties in managing academic stress.

Healing the Separation in High-Conflict Post-divorce Co-parenting.

Objective: Our research aim is to enrich the conceptualization of high conflict post-divorce co-parenting by understanding the dynamic process involved. Background: The studied phenomena were explored by linking previous scientific knowledge to practice. Method: We cross-referenced the previous study results with the experiences reported by eight professionals and tried to answer the following research question: how professionals' experience and previous scientific knowledge contribute to a better understanding of HC post-divorce co-parenting? Individual face to face interviews were conducted and analyzed regarding the qualitative theoretical reasoning of thematic analysis. Results: Analysis allowed us to highlight how four main axes are related to HC post-divorce co-parenting: (1) Parents for life, (2) Acting in the child's best interests, (3) Managing disagreements, and (4) Healing the separation. Conclusion: Our findings capture high conflict post-divorce co-parenting as a multidimensional dynamic process. As such, dealing with co-parenting disagreements must be understood as a moment in a process that is influenced by, and influences, other dimensions. Implications: Interventions must consider the four dimensions and their reciprocal interactions. The essential elements underlying parents' difficulties may reside at a multiplicity of levels: inter-relational, contextual, and intrapsychic. Each level contains key potential factors in understanding these families, and in formulating intervention guidelines.

Harmful Stress-Related Couple Processes During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown: A Longitudinal Dyadic Perspective.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus "pandemic." To reduce the risk of contamination, many countries have ordered a lockdown characterized by social distancing and restrictive isolation measures. While the lockdown has proven to be quite effective in terms of physical health, little is known about its impact on couple satisfaction in a dyadic perspective. The current research was a 4-waves longitudinal study (i.e., from March to July 2020) with the objective to examine the trajectory of couple satisfaction during the lockdown with a dyadic perspective (N = 108 couples), including the presence (or absence) of children at home, the number of hours spent together, and the duration of the relationship as time-invariant predictors and the partner's couple satisfaction trajectory as a time-varying covariate. Results showed positive intraindividual changes in couple satisfaction during the lockdown, especially an increase in partners' effectiveness for resolving couple conflicts and a decrease in partners' aggressiveness. Partners had also perceived the influence of the lockdown as more and more positive over time on couple and family functioning. Finally, the couple satisfaction of both partners changed in tandem during the lockdown: The perception of the couple relationship seems to similarly evolve between partners.

Intimate Relationships in Times of COVID-19: A Descriptive Study of Belgian Partners and their Perceived Well-Being.

How did couples in Belgium cope during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic? In this study, grounded in relationship science, we investigated in a descriptive manner several factors that could affect how couples perceived individual and relational wellbeing during this time. Specifically, we examined the associations between gender, sexual orientation, parental status, and relationship duration on participants' self-reported individual and relational well-being after the first lockdown (more generally and more specific in response to COVID-19). Additionally, we investigated if relational well-being predicted perceived change in individual well-being from pre- to post-COVID-19 regulations. To test these hypotheses, self-report data was collected during the Summer of 2020 in both the Dutch and French speaking part of Belgium. Data from 679 participants suggested that individual and relational well-being only differed based on parental status (and not by gender nor sexual orientation). Importantly, parents reported lower relational well-being than participants without children, while participants without children reported higher perceived increases in depression. People that had been in a relationship for longer also reported lower relational well-being, but this relationship was explained by other confounding factors. Relational well-being buffered increases in individual distress that people perceived to have occurred pre-COVID-19 regulations to after COVID-19 regulations went into effect. These findings might inform practice and policy for individuals in a romantic relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Development of Trait Emotional Intelligence in Response to Childbirth: A Longitudinal Couple Perspective.

The aim of the current paper was to investigate the influence of childbirth on parents' trait emotional intelligence (EI). A three-wave longitudinal research program (during the second trimester of pregnancy, at 6 months postpartum, and at 1 year postpartum) using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model with a hierarchical linear modeling was conducted on 204 parental couples with parental group (i.e., primiparous and multiparous parents) as a time-invariant predictor and the partner's EI development as a time-varying covariate. Results showed that parents' EI was stable, except for Self-Control that increases after childbirth. Moreover, there was a significant negative association between the actor's and the partner's development around childbirth. Childbirth pushes parents to function in dyad rather than individually. Compensatory effects may be observed between both parents in terms of emotional management of parenting: When one partner cannot cope emotionally with parenting, the other partner would compensate and better manage the emotional aspects of parenting. The discussion underlined the importance of the dyadic perspective in understanding the childbirth experience, specifically the parents' receptivity to variation in their partners' emotional levels.