Ricerc@Sapienza

Both normative and non-normative life events represent a great source of stress, concerns, and fear, which challenge the mental health and wellbeing of many individuals. Dyadic Coping (DC) describes the dynamic interpersonal process partners use to jointly cope with stress and it significantly reduces partners¿ distress and improves their psychological health. To note, for DC to be effective in reducing negative effect on partner¿s well-being, efforts of both partners should be equal. However, many couples experience a decrease of equity within the domain of their relationships and very little is known about the effects of this discrepancy on partners positive and negative adjustment. Romantic dyads¿ partners will report on Life Events, self- and partner¿s DC, symptoms of depression and prosocial behaviors. Recently implemented, Latent Difference Score Models will be used to compute discrepancies between partners perceptions and to model their potential effects on partners¿ adjustment when facing life events. Theoretical and practical implications of the results will be discussed.