The main purposes of this study are to examine the effects of the psychoeducation programme structured on Masnavi stories based on positive psychology, prepared by the researcher, on marital harmony to improve this through a psychoeducational programme and to increase their satisfaction with life. The research was an experimental study based on…

Family practitioners come from many walks of life and may include students, provided they are sufficiently prepared or supported through hands-on learning experiences. In this study, we report the outcomes of community different-sex couples who participated in a free, six-week, student-facilitated Marriage Enrichment Workshop between 2015 and…

We examined the utility of naive ratings of communication patterns and relationship quality in a large sample of distressed couples. Untrained raters assessed 10-min videotaped interactions from 134 distressed couples who participated in both problem-solving and social support discussions at each of 3 time points (pre-therapy, post-therapy, and…

Few studies provide specific rates of marital divorce or separation in association with a history of infidelity. Research based primarily from clinical or help-seeking populations suggests that most couples who have experienced infidelity do not divorce within the time frames assessed. Using self-reported history of extramarital sex (EMS),…

This study examined the basic utility of topic models, a computational linguistics model for text-based data, to the investigation of the process of couple therapy. Linguistic analysis offers an additional lens through which to examine clinical data, and the topic model is presented as a novel methodology within couple and family psychology that…

Partner-assisted emotional disclosure is a couple-based intervention designed to help patients disclose cancer-related concerns to their spouses-partners. We previously found that, compared with an education/support control condition, partner-assisted emotional disclosure led to significant improvements in relationship quality and intimacy for…

This study investigated differences in the trajectory of marital satisfaction in the first 7 years between couples in covenant versus standard marriages. The authors analyzed data on 707 Louisiana marriages from the Marriage Matters Panel Survey of Newlywed Couples, 1998-2004, using multivariate longitudinal growth modeling. When the sample was…

Using typologies outlined by Gottman and Fitzpatrick as well as institutional and companionate models of marriage, the authors conducted a latent class analysis of marital conflict trajectories using 20 years of data from the Marital Instability Over the Life Course study. Respondents were in one of three groups: high, medium (around the mean), or…

Despite infidelity being a highly traumatic experience, not all couples end their relationship after discovery of the affair. The present study provides insights into the experience of couples who remained together after having experienced infidelity by one partner. Narrative inquiry methods were used to undertake and analyze in-depth interviews…

The following qualitative study examined the impact of counselor training on the experience and process of four counseling students' couple relationships. Students were selected from a Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accredited program to take part in three rounds of interviews and member-check…

How does the spouse of a person with depression take part in constructing narratives of depression in couple therapy? In this study we examined couples' ways of co-constructing narratives of depression in couple therapy. Three couple therapy processes were chosen for the study, one spouse in each couple having been referred to an outpatient clinic…

Objective: To examine changes in observed communication after therapy termination in distressed couples from a randomized clinical trial. Method: A total of 134 distressed couples were randomly assigned to either traditional behavioral couple therapy (TBCT; Jacobson & Margolin, 1979) or integrative behavioral couple therapy (IBCT; Jacobson &…

Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT) posits that emotional reactions to a partner's behavior can be as important to the relationship as the behavior itself. This study examined whether acceptance (a) is distinct from relationship sentiment, (b) mediates the link between a partner's behavioral frequency and own relationship satisfaction,…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the alliance and outcome in couple therapy and examine whether the alliance predicted outcomes over and above early change. The authors also investigated partner influence and gender and sought to identify couple alliance patterns that predicted couple outcomes. Method:…

Research on divorce during the past decade has focused on a range of topics, including the predictors of divorce, associations between divorce and the well-being of children and former spouses, and interventions for divorcing couples. Methodological advances during the past decade include a greater reliance on nationally representative…