In response to a series of national policy reports regarding what has been termed the "quality chasm" in health and mental health care in the United States, in January 2003, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy convened a task force to develop core competencies (CC) for the practice of marriage and family therapy (MFT). The…

Attempted to predict therapy dropouts using data gathered at marital therapy intake with 474 couples seeking marital therapy who attended at least 1 session. Significant predictors of dropping out included having less than two children, having a male intake clinician, and presenting problem relating only to one spouse. (Author/ABL)

Tested the reliability and validity of the Marital Status Inventory (MSI), a measure of divorce potential (N=241 couples). Compound probability for five clinical sites supported the contention that, overall, wives' are more distressed than their husbands. The MSI was also able to identify couples who later divorced. (JAC)

This paper presents an empirical approach to supervision and training of marriage and family therapists. Advantages from the use of the empirical approach include a systematic investigation of the skills and competencies of the therapists, and establishing the basis for the scientific study of supervision. Two case studies are given. (Author)

Marriage and family therapy training clinic clients rated their therapist's skill level on several therapist variables including "experience,""confidence,""concern," and how well the treatment seemed to fit their view of the problem. Suggestions for using these results in supervision of beginning therapists are given.…

The Marital Status Inventory (MSI) differentiates effectively between couples seeking marital counseling and couples seeking help with parent-child problems. For all cases, MSI scores were found to relate significantly to husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction in the areas of companionship and sex. (Author)

Involved a 10-year review of the major marriage and family therapy related journals for articles involving racial and ethnic minorities. Despite an awareness of the importance of such scholarship, fewer than 5% of published articles focused on racial and ethnic minority populations and issues. Provides a benchmark against which future publication…

We discuss the status of the scientist-practitioner model in marriage and family therapy (MFT) doctoral programs. Issues discussed include a lack of faculty research role models in doctoral programs, "farming out" the majority of research courses to other disciplines, problems with curriculum, and how the culture of MFT does not support research.…