Sintomatologia de Couvade e o envolvimento paterno vivenciado durante a gravidez

in order to assess the existence of couvade symptoms and their relation with the paternal involvement, an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was designed, in which a convenience sample of 200 expectant fathers participated. the materials used were: a socio--demographic questionnaire, developed for this study; a questionnaire regarding different pregnancy related aspects (planned vs. unplanned/unwanted vs. wanted, age, gestational period, parenthood status and risks associated to the pregnancy); the symtomatology inventory (black, holditch--davis, sandelowski, & harris, 1995); and the portuguese version of the antenatal emocional attachment scale (condon, 1993; gomez & leal, 2007). the main findings of our study were the confirmation of couvade symptoms in our sample, and the non--association between these symptoms and paternal involvement.