ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the role of a systemic transaction model (STM) approach to dyadic coping (DC) in the Portuguese cultural context. Overall, Portugal is a country with a collectivistic orientation characterized by a strong familialism and maternalism focus; contradictory values on gender roles and work-life management as well as on child and house care; predominance of dual-earner couples; multiple stressors; and high levels of external and internal stress. Furthermore, dyadic coping is relevant for couples when dealing with overall external stressors, with intra-dyadic stressors as well as with major stressors. Since inter dependence within Portuguese couples is valued, and the partner is the most important source of support, interventions aimed to foster DC can be paramount, because they promote couples' dyadic coping behaviors and we-ness against a common enemy: stress. Nowadays, couples' relationships are more egalitarian and partners share more decision making concerning family functioning than in former times.
