Introduction: This paper evaluated the relationships between the dyadic adjustment of expectant parents and prenatal maternal and paternal depression. Method: Participants were 98 couples who were expectant parents in the third trimester of pregnancy. Most couples (97%) were primiparous. Participants' prenatal depression, psychiatric symptomatology, perinatal affectivity, and dyadic adjustment were evaluated. Results: Hierarchical regression and relative weight analyses showed the importance of various marital adjustment dimensions in predicting prenatal maternal and paternal depression. In particular, the marital relationship variables of dyadic consensus and affective expression of both partners was related to prenatal depression in expectant mothers, with the relationship even stronger in expectant fathers. The results suggested that for both partners, perception of marital relationship quality contributes to the development of depressive symptoms in new mothers and fathers to a greater degree than the single perception of one partner. Discussion: Clinically, the results suggest that clinicians should focus on partner relationships in the perinatal period. The provision of psychological interventions to improve a couple's functioning may help to protect new parents against depressive symptomatology.

Several studies have suggested a correlation between heart rate variability (HRV), emotion regulation (ER), psychopathological conditions, and cognitive functions in the past two decades. Specifically, recent data seem to support the hypothesis that low-frequency heart rate variability (LF-HRV), an index of sympathetic cardiac control, correlates with worse executive performances, worse ER, and specific psychopathological dimensions. The present work aims to review the previous findings on these topics and integrate them from two main cornerstones of this perspective: Porges’ Polyvagal Theory and Thayer and Lane’s Neurovisceral Integration Model, which are necessary to understand these associations better. For this reason, based on these two approaches, we point out that low HRV is associated with emotional dysregulation, worse cognitive performance, and transversal psychopathological conditions. We report studies that underline the importance of considering the heart-brain relation in order to shed light on the necessity to implement psychophysiology into a broader perspective on emotions, mental health, and good cognitive functioning. This integration is beneficial not only as a theoretical ground from which to start for further research studies but as a starting point for new theoretical perspectives useful in clinical practice.