Enhancing partner empathy and support in the postnatal period: impact of a communication and empathy resource on sub-optimal communicators

Abstract

Postnatal distress in women is often associated with poor partner support or understanding, often as a result of poor couple communication. Previous research showed positive findings for an innovative resource aimed to ameliorate these factors in community couples – ‘The Great Parents' Quiz’ (GPQ). This current study compared the impact of this resource on couples classified as either ‘good communicators’ or ‘sub-optimal communicators’ prior to receiving the GPQ. A between and within research design was used. Parents of infants and toddlers (N = 167) were randomly allocated to either receiving the GPQ or not (Controls). Phone interviews were conducted with the women 2 weeks and 6 weeks after receiving the GPQ, or just at 6 weeks for Control participants. Both good and sub-optimal communicators showed equivalent benefits from receiving the GPQ. Around 81% of sub-optimal communicators reported that one or other of the couple had learnt something new about their partner, and 66% of the women considered that their partner had a better understanding of how she was experiencing motherhood. In total, 28% of sub-optimal communicators reported new supportive behaviour as a result of doing the GPQ, and this tended to be proactive as opposed to couples in the Control condition who reported changes as a result of intolerable stress. Both good and sub-optimal communicators report clinically significant benefits from doing the GPQ, and these benefits are more than those obtained from the usual pamphlets giving advice to couples to ‘talk and listen’ to each other.