The potential role of gender in stress
We found generally higher stress levels in women than in men (in agreement with normative gender differences, L. Nielsen et al., Finally, instead of attributing the different trends in change between women and men to gender per se, we argue that they could also be attributed to the higher baseline stress characterizing women in our study as well as normatively. As discussed in the following, higher initial stress level entails greater potential for reduction. However, a moderating effect of initial perceived stress level is yet to be investigated in studies of relationship checkups.