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The aim of this prospective study involving 39 women and 32 partners was to investigate the grief response of both the woman and her partner to miscarriage and to ascertain if support received was adequate and appropriate to their needs. Previous research shows that partners' grief can often be delayed and chronic. Special emphasis is placed on this area in this study. The miscarriage was found to be a significant event and the majority of women and partners still experienced feelings of loss up to 4 months afterwards, describing their reactions as sad or very sad. Scores on the first administration of the Perinatal Grief Scale showed that, in contrast with previous findings, partners scored significantly higher than the women on the three subscales and overall. Partners' scores on the second administration were also higher than those for the women but the difference was not significant. The women tended to receive and welcome social support more than the partners. Support received from health professionals was not always optimal, particularly for partners. Pregnancy subsequent to miscarriage was often viewed with some anxiety. It is argued that the results of the study have important implications for health practice.

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The development of two 50‐item parallel forms of an Australian sex‐role scale is described. A total of 2,427 subjects rated 512 adjectives in terms of their desirability for Australian males and females, the degree to which they are expected in Australian males and females, and their self‐applicability. These ratings were used to construct the two scales — Personal Description Questionnaire Forms A and B. Each scale comprises 10 masculine positive, 10 masculine negative, 10 feminine positive, 10 feminine negative, and 10 social desirability items. The new scales were administered to 282 (144 male, 138 female) high‐school students for self‐description, and the various psychometric characteristics of the scales and norms for these samples are presented. It is recommended that Australian sex‐role researchers use these new scales in preference to past scales based on American college students. As with any new scales there is a need for further normative data to be gathered and a variety of validation studies to be conducted.