It's About Time! Examining Received Dosage and Program Duration as Predictors of Change Among Non‐Distressed and Distressed Married Couple and Relationship Education Participants

Abstract

Although Couple and Relationship Education (CRE) programs were intended to be preventive in nature, an emerging reality is that relationally distressed couples are attending programs. This has raised questions about both its general usefulness and what is known regarding predictors of change in CRE for distressed couples particularly. Previous work has identified dosage and duration as important moderators of changes, and there are myriad program contexts offered, highlighting the need to examine these among distressed couples. This study utilized a sample of community CRE participants and examined received dosage and program duration as predictors of change. Comparing results for distressed and non-distressed participants, we found several group differences. Findings suggest that it is important to consider distress level and time spent in programs when placing participants. In addition, research should continue to examine these groups separately (or comparatively) to find out what works for whom.

Short‐Term‐Effectiveness of a Relationship Education Program for Distressed Military Couples, in the Context of Foreign Assignments for the German Armed Forces. Preliminary Findings From a Randomized Controlled Study

“…However, no statements can be made concerning intergroup differences, due to the fact that the effect sizes of the experimental and control groups could not be compared at the fourth assessment point. Consistent with some of the previous studies (Bradford et al., ; Quirk et al., ), including those concerning distressed civilian couples, the effect sizes on relationship satisfaction scores were large in this study.…”

“…Recent studies explicitly examined effects by relationship distress level, showing larger effects for distressed than for nondistressed couples (Carlson, Rappleyea, Daire, Harris, & Liu, ; Halford et al., ; Job, Baucom, & Hahlweg, ; Quirk, Strokoff, Owen, France, & Bergen, ), with moderate‐to‐large effect sizes. In addition, findings from a large noncontrolled study (Bradford, Drean, Adler‐Baeder, Ketring, & Smith, ) suggest that for distressed civilian couples, the impact of the number of sessions they attended while participating in an RE program was higher on several relationship satisfaction indices, as opposed to its smaller effect on couples who were not distressed. Therefore, our intent was to reach out to military couples who were already distressed and in the preparation phase of a foreign assignment that might be seen as a special challenge for both partners.…”

Couple relationship education program “Living as Partners”: evaluation of effects on marital quality and conflict

“…As anticipated in hypothesis 1, the individuals who participated in the program reported, at the immediate termination of the workshops, an increase in marital quality levels for husbands, a decrease in the frequency of conflicts, and in the use of the compliance strategy for wives, and a more frequent use of the positive resolution conflict resolution strategy and less use of the strategies conflict engagement and withdrawal for both husbands and wives. The literature presents solid results on the capacity of relationship education programs to produce immediate improvements in the quality of the marital relationship (Bradford et al, 2014;Ditzen et al, 2011) and in the conflict resolution strategies (Antle et al, 2013;Bradford et al, 2017;Cox & Shirer, 2009). Our results corroborate these data, although there are some differences between husbands and wives.…”

“…Perhaps because of the multidimensional nature of marital quality, there is a smaller number of studies that evaluate this construct. Most of the results of these surveys confirm the ability of relationship education to produce improvements in marital quality immediately after the completion of the program (Ditzen, Hahlweg, Fehm-Wolfsdorf, & Baucom, 2011) for both men and women (Bradford et al, 2014(Bradford et al, , 2017. Only in the study by Fallahchai et al (2017), the improvement in marital quality indices remained after 1 year.…”

“…Other studies reported improvements in problem-solving skills, with effects lasting after 1 (O'Halloran, Rizzolo, Cohen, & Wacker, 2013) and up to 5 years (Markman, Renick, Floyd, Stanley, & Clements, 1993). Also, evaluations performed immediately after the end of the programs, without follow-up, identified signs of decrease in the use of the withdrawal strategy (Antle et al, 2013); increased ability to listen to the other, to accept criticism, and to manage anger constructively (Cox & Shirer, 2009); and increase in positive interactions and decrease in negative interactions (Bradford, Drean, Adler-Baeder, Ketring, & Smith, 2017).…”