434 B. Kerstis et al. the perceived level of relationship discord between mothers with and without postpartum depressive symptoms, as well as between fathers with and with- out postpartum depressive symptoms. SPSS 17.0 was used for all calculations, and a two-sided P value of <0.05 was considered statistically signiﬁcant. Results Prevalence of perceived relationship discord There was no overall disagreement between mothers and fathers in the perceived level of relationship discord (total DCS scores). The median (q1; q3) total DCS score was 54 (51; 58) for mothers and 53 (51; 57) for fathers, with the correlation between the total DCS scores of mothers and fathers being 0.595 (P < 0.001). Regarding the separate items of the DCS, it was found that the couples disagreed about the perceived level of discord in 7 of the 13 items. These were: Recreational activities, Friends, Aims and life goals, Time together, Household tasks, Leisure time interests and activities, and Decisions regarding career/personal devel- opment. For all of these items, except Household tasks, the number of couples in which the mothers had a higher estimated level of agreement than the fathers was larger than the number of couples where it was the other way around (Table I). Prevalence of postpartum depressive symptoms Among the 305 couples included in the study, 260 (85.2%) of the mothers and 252 (82.6%) of the fathers had answered all EPDS questions and could thus be evaluated for postpartum depressive symptoms. The results showed that 43 (16.5%) of the 260 mothers and 22 (8.7%) of the 252 fathers suffered from postpartum depressive symptoms according to the EPDS cut-off of >9. The median (q1; q3) total EPDS score was 4 (2; 7) for mothers and 3 (1; 6) for fathers. Both parents had answered all EPDS questions in 249 (81.6%) of the 305 couples. For these cases, it was possible to compare the occurrence of postpar- tum depressive symptoms between spouses in a cou- ple. In total, both parents had depressive symptoms in 6 (2.4%) of the 249 couples, and neither of the parents showed any depressive symptoms in 192 (77.1%) of the 249 couples. The father, but not the mother, had depressive symptoms in 15 (6.0%) of the 249 couples, while the mother but not the father had depressive symptoms in 36 (14.5%) of the 249 couples. Com- pared with the fathers, the mothers more often had depressive symptoms (P = 0.005). The correlation between the total EPDS scores of mothers and fathers was 0.287 (P < 0.001). There were no differences between mothers and fathers with, and without, depressive symptoms regarding age, being married/cohabiting with the child’s other parent, if the child was ﬁrst-born, or education level (Table II). Association between perceived relationship discord and postpartum depressive symptoms Mothers and fathers with depressive symptoms scored higher levels of discord compared to parents without depressive symptoms. The median (q1; q3) total DCS score was 53 (48; 56.5) for mothers with depressive symptoms and 55 (52; 59) for mothers without depres- sive symptoms. For fathers with depressive symptoms the total DCS score was 49 (44.5; 53) and for fathers without depressive symptoms 54 (51; 58). The corre- lations between the total DCS and EPDS scores were –0.253 (P < 0.001) for mothers and –0.313 (P < 0.001) for fathers. The perceived level of relationship discord was higher for mothers and fathers with self-reported depressive symptoms compared to the parents with- out depressive symptoms for the total score and regarding the items Socializing with family and friends, Important decisions, and Household tasks. Furthermore, mothers with self-reported depressive symptoms Table II. Age, ﬁrst child, and education level among mothers and fathers with and without depressive symptoms. Mean age, years (SD) First child Comprehensive school, 9 y High school, <12 y University, ‡12 y With depressive symptoms 30.6 (4.46) 45.2% 7.1% 61.9% 31.0% Mothers Without depressive symptoms 29.9 (5.03) 41.9% 5.1% 59.9% 35.0% P value 0.393 0.692 0.789 With depressive symptoms 32.5 (5.15) 40.9% 0% 90.9% 9.1% Fathers Without depressive symptoms 33.0 (5.65) 44.7% 5.3% 73% 21.7% P value 0.666 0.730 0.167