Perinatal depression is prevalent and significantly impacts many facets of a couple's life. Despite the need for more couple-focused interventions for perinatal depression (PD), few interventions address the prevention and treatment of PD from a dyadic lens. Given the growing demand for and use of computer or online interventions, it is vital to examine how computer or online interventions can be employed to deliver couple interventions for PD to a larger audience. In this dissertation, I present findings from a one-arm pilot study testing the initial efficacy of a computer or online couple intervention for PD. The intervention tested was an adapted version of the Hold Me Tight (HMT; Johnson, 2015) program, which was adapted to meet the unique needs of perinatal couples. Findings from the first study suggested that participation in the program was associated with a significant decrease in women's PD and avoidant attachment patterns and improvement in women's relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction over the course of the study. However, women's participation in the program was not associated with significant changes in their anxious attachment patterns and attachment behaviors, and men's participation in the program was not associated with significant changes in any of the outcomes. The goal of the second study was to examine participant characteristics that predicted participants' outcomes in the intervention to better understand who benefits from the intervention. The results illustrated baseline participant characteristics that predicted whether men and women experienced positive or negative outcomes in PD from participation in the adapted HMT intervention. The findings and their implications are explored further in the discussion section.
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