Mechanisms of Change in a Cognitive Behavioral Couples Prevention Program: Does Being Naughty or Nice Matter?

Stanley, Scott M.; Rhoades, Galena K.; Olmos-Gallo, P. Antonio; Markman, Howard J.

doi:10.1007/s11121-007-0071-8

Cited by 25 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Nevertheless, there is not much evidence in this sample for relationship quality impacts that would appear sufficiently powerful to explain the divorce reduction effect, raising the possibility that other mechanisms produced the impact on divorce, such as non-specific or unmeasured effects (see Hawkins, Stanley, Blanchard, & Albright, 2012). Such issues pertain to the general question of mechanisms of impact, which, as others have noted, are important to elucidate (e.g., Wadsworth & Markman, 2011) but difficult to demonstrate (e.g., Schilling, Baucom, Burnett, Allen, & Ragland, 2003; Stanley, Rhoades, Olmos-Gallo, & Markman, 2007). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Relationship Education in the U.S. Army: 2‐Year Outcomes

et al. 2014

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This study examined the effectiveness of an evidence-based, community-delivered adaptation of couple relationship education (CRE; specifically, PREP, The Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program) delivered at two Army installations. The study is a randomized controlled trial with two years of follow-up, examining marital quality and stability. Sample composition was 662 married couples with a spouse in the U.S. Army. Analyses yielded no evidence of overall enduring intervention effects on relationship quality but couples assigned to intervention at the higher risk site were significantly less likely than controls to be divorced at the two-year follow-up (8.1% vs. 14.9%, p < .01). This effect was moderated by ethnic minority status. Specifically, the impact of the intervention on divorce was strongest for minority couples. The findings add to the literature on who may benefit most from CRE.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Relationship Education in the U.S. Army: 2‐Year Outcomes

et al. 2014

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“…Stanley, Rhoades, Olmos-Gallo, and Markman (2007) attempted to replicate the Schilling et al paradoxical finding and could not do so in two independent samples. Stanley and colleagues argued that one potential explanation for the Schilling findings was that they analyzed partner scores together in their analyses and that such dependencies influenced the outcomes.…”

Section: General Perspectives On Mechanisms Of Changementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Stanley et al (2007) note that analyses of change are very complicated when it comes to couple level variables. As these authors point out, there is no clear consensus on how to handle such data and issues such as multicollinearity can affect findings including producing counterintuitive findings such as may be the case in Schilling et al A critical question raised by these authors is “when do couples levels of analyses poorly represent what is actually happening with couples (p. 236)….what does it mean to examine changes in female positivity if the change in her partner’s communication is controlled for (p. 237)?” Space precludes further discussion of these very important statistical issues (and of course there are other important issues as well when it comes to handling dyadic data over time) and readers are referred to Stanley et al (2007) for a fuller discussion of some of these issues.…”

Section: General Perspectives On Mechanisms Of Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Where's the Action? Understanding What Works and Why in Relationship Education

Wadsworth

Markman

2012

Behavior Therapy

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The field of Couples Relationship Education has come to a critical junction. We have generally demonstrated that our interventions work (at least in the short-run) but to what extent have we shown that the skills and processes we teach are in fact responsible for the success of the intervention? In this paper we review progress made in understanding mechanisms of change in relationship education, explore limitations of this body of research, explicate the barriers that interfere with progress in understanding mechanisms of change in intervention research, and present recommendations on how to proceed from here. While our goal in this paper is to focus more on issues in the field rather than to present a comprehensive review of the literature, we provide overarching research summaries to illustrate some of our points. We conclude with offering recommendations for the next generation of research in the Couples Relationship Education field.

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“…While the latter results concerning positive communication in women are surprising and counterintuitive, Schilling et al (2003) found that links between changes in women’s positive communication and subsequent distress were no longer significant when controlling for wives’ reported mutual avoidance, suggesting that wives who increased their positive behavior over the course of the workshop may have been avoiding discussion of important problems. Critics of this literature have argued that there are potential statistical and methodological issues (e.g., influential cases and very complex and difficult to interpret models) that cannot be ruled out as explanations for such findings (Stanley et al, 2007). However, if Schilling et al’s (2003) and Baucom et al’s (2006) interpretations of these results are accurate – that some women may have misinterpreted instruction in the PREP workshop to mean that positive communication is good and negative communication is bad regardless of the context of the behavior – these findings may highlight a problem with purely behavioral approaches to relationship distress, as we discuss in more detail below.…”

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confidence: 99%

Observed communication in couples two years after integrative and traditional behavioral couple therapy: Outcome and link with five-year follow-up.

Baucom¹,

Sevier²,

Eldridge³

et al. 2011

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

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Objective To examine changes in observed communication after therapy termination in distressed couples from a randomized clinical trial. Method 134 distressed couples were randomly assigned to either Traditional Behavioral Couple Therapy (TBCT; Jacobson & Margolin, 1979) or Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT; Jacobson & Christensen, 1998). Videotaped samples of each couple’s interactions were coded from pre-therapy, post-therapy, and 2-year follow-up assessments. At these three time points, each partner chose one current relationship problem to discuss. Relationship satisfaction was assessed at 2-year follow-up and clinically significant treatment response and marital status were assessed 5 years after treatment. Results Observed negativity and withdrawal decreased from therapy termination through the 2-year follow-up as expected but problem solving did not change and observed positivity decreased. IBCT produced superior changes from post-therapy to the 2-year follow-up assessment compared with TBCT. Post-therapy levels and changes in communication over follow-up were associated with wife satisfaction at 2-year follow-up; only post-therapy to 2-year follow-up changes in communication were associated with husband satisfaction at 2-year follow-up. Post-therapy levels of problem solving and changes in wives’ positivity from pre-therapy to post-therapy were associated with 5-year relationship outcomes. We found some counterintuitive results with positivity but they were no longer significant after controlling for withdrawal. Conclusion We found support for improvements in observed communication following treatment termination, with IBCT demonstrating greater maintenance of communication improvement over follow-up. We found limited evidence of associations between communication and relationship outcomes at 5-year follow-up.

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Mechanisms of Change in a Cognitive Behavioral Couples Prevention Program: Does Being Naughty or Nice Matter?

Cited by 25 publications

References 53 publications

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Relationship Education in the U.S. Army: 2‐Year Outcomes

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Relationship Education in the U.S. Army: 2‐Year Outcomes

Where's the Action? Understanding What Works and Why in Relationship Education

Observed communication in couples two years after integrative and traditional behavioral couple therapy: Outcome and link with five-year follow-up.

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