Extradyadic Activity in a Random Sample of Norwegian Couples

The purpose of this study was to explore extradyadic sexual activity (ESA) in Norwegian heterosexual couples and to identify factors connected to each of the parties that may predict ESA. The study comprised a representative sample of 399 couples (798 individuals) between 22 to 67 years of age. The data were collected by means of self-administered postal questionnaires. In 6% of couples the female partner had had a concurrent sex partner, in 13% of couples the male partner had had a parallel sex partner and in 4% of couples both had engaged in ESA. A man with experience of ESA experienced negative work-to-home interference, was preoccupied with sex, and frequently thought of others during sex with his wife. The male partner of a woman with experience of ESA was reported being self-confident and she perceived him as easy to talk to about sex. Furthermore, his attitude was that two persons who love each other should not have secrets from each other. The woman with experience of ESA, on the other hand, reported having secrets from her partner and to think of others during intercourse.     

Resolving Coparenting Dissatisfaction In Couples: A Preliminary Task Analysis Study

This study explored the change that unfolded when parents resolved their coparenting dissatisfaction during an Integrative Brief Systemic Intervention (IBSI) for parent couples. We conducted a task analysis (Greenberg, 2007) to build a model of resolving coparenting dissatisfaction. We compared a postulated model of change (rational model) based on theoretical and clinical assumptions to the observations of the actual change process that couples experienced in an IBSI (empirical analysis). The empirical analysis was conducted on six IBSI therapy cases (three exhibiting positive development and three exhibiting no development). We defined positive development in IBSI as moving from coparenting dissatisfaction to coparenting satisfaction. The final rational–empirical model included six steps that facilitated the resolution of coparenting dissatisfaction. This study contributes to deepening the knowledge of how coparenting may change during marital therapy.     

Relationship Characteristics of American Gay and Lesbian Couples:

A total of 1,749 self-selected gay men and lesbians representing 560 gay couples and 706 lesbian couples were surveyed concerning their relationships. Respondents had been in their relationships an average of 6 years. Findings form 13 topics relevant to relationships underscore the diversity and complicity of same sex couples. Primary attention is given to distinctions between male and female couples and factors correlated with relationship quality.     

Economic Security and Financial Management Issues Facing Same-Sex Couples

Same-sex couples experience economic rights and responsibilities in a context that differs from that of married couples. Financial management and economic security issues facing same-sex couples have received little attention to date. These issues are examined in this article within changing legal and social conditions. Family professionals should be knowledgeable about the context and scope of these important issues facing same-sex couples to be able to educate their constituent groups appropriately, deal with clients in therapy, and inform and influence policy makers.     

Racial/Ethnic Intermarried Couples and Marital Interaction: Marital Issues and Problem Solving

Abstract

Throughout history interracial/interethnic marriages have been considered an extreme deviation from the marital norm and thus inappropriate by the standards of mainstream society and minority communities. Even today, societal views of intermarried couples often remain negative in nature. This negative perception is frequently sustained by the assumption that intermarried couples experience race / ethnic-based differences in social, moral, and living standards that result in marriages that are fraught with conflict and instability. The mate selection literature however, would suggest that intermarried couples are not socially deficient, but are similar to those who marry within their racial / ethnic group. This research is intended to fill a gap in the literature by exploring the interpersonal, interactive aspects of interracial/interethnic marriages. In particular, this study evaluates intermarried couples as they interact during videotaped sessions of cooperative problem solving to determine if they are similar to, or distinct from, intramarried couples. Data from two aspects of the marital interaction are presented: the types of marital problems encountered and the manner in which couples attempt to resolve these issues. Findings show that while race/ethnicity did not emerge as an issue for intermarried couples, they were confronting different marital issues than intramarried couples. In addition, intermarrieds often employ different interactional styles than intramarrieds when dealing with their marital issues.     

Parental Divorce and Premarital Couples: Commitment and Other Relationship Characteristics

Parental divorce is thought to affect the romantic relationships of young adults, especially with respect to their certainty about the relationship and perceptions of problems in it. We examined these connections with a random sample of 464 coupled partners. Compared with women from intact families, women from divorced families reported less trust and satisfaction, but more ambivalence and conflict. For men, perceptions of relationships were contingent on the marital status of their partners' parents, although men from intact and divorced families did differ on structural constraints that affect commitment. Young adults who were casually dating showed the strongest effects of parental divorce, suggesting that the repercussions of parental divorce may be in place before the young adults form their own romantic relationships.     

Mandatory Reporting and Child Exposure to Domestic Violence: Issues Regarding the Therapeutic Alliance with Couples

Some child welfare legislation have recently expanded the definition of ‘a child in need of protection’ to include child exposure to intimate partner violence. Such legislation places clinicians in the challenging position of determining whether a situation falls under their duty to report. The current paper examines a case example in which there was child exposed to intimate partner violence, the clinician made a report to child welfare authorities and attempted to maintain the therapeutic alliance with the couple in treatment. The couple viewed contacting child welfare authorities as a crisis situation both in their marriage and in their family. Practice principles for clinicians are suggested.     

Homophily and Contagion Are Generically Confounded in Observational Social Network Studies

The authors consider processes on social networks that can potentially involve three factors: homophily, or the formation of social ties due to matching individual traits; social contagion, also known as social influence; and the causal effect of an individual's covariates on his or her behavior or other measurable responses. The authors show that generically, all of these are confounded with each other. Distinguishing them from one another requires strong assumptions on the parametrization of the social process or on the adequacy of the covariates used (or both). In particular the authors demonstrate, with simple examples, that asymmetries in regression coefficients cannot identify causal effects and that very simple models of imitation (a form of social contagion) can produce substantial correlations between an individual's enduring traits and his or her choices, even when there is no intrinsic affinity between them. The authors also suggest some possible constructive responses to these results.     

Gay,Lesbian, and Heterosexual Couples About to Begin Couples Therapy: An Online Relationship Assessment of 40,681 Couples

We currently have little idea of precisely who goes for couples therapy. This is a report of the results of a validated online assessment of relationship and individual functioning based on 39,251 heterosexual, 1,022 lesbian, and 438 gay couples about to begin couples therapy. Using validated and reliable questionnaires of relationship and individual functioning, this report presents and compares, for each sexual-orientation, the percentage of couples, pre-therapy, who are coping with a variety of relationship problems. To test for the replicability of results, the sample was divided randomly into two subsamples and statistical tests were performed on each sample. Couples initiating therapy suffer from greater distress and many more co-morbidities than has been presumed in previous literature, and same-sex couples present a particular set of both strengths and challenges compared to heterosexual couples. Gay-male and lesbian couples were very different on trust and monogamy, as were heterosexual and lesbian couples. Based on this epidemiologically sized sample, the challenge to our field may be to create interventions with much larger effect sizes than we currently have.     

Characteristics of Couples Who Attend Family Services Counselor Visits in Relationship Education

Case management services for low-income couples receiving relationship education have been required by federal funding agencies. Studies examining relationship education outcomes for low-income couples have yet to address participant characteristics of those who attend case management services (e.g., distressed vs. nondistressed). Thus, this study examined the influence of baseline relationship satisfaction and demographics on attendance at case management visits for 2,628 low-income, partnered participants who attended relationship education. Findings indicated that participants who reported higher baseline relationship distress attended more family services counselor (FSC) visits. However, when we added demographics to the model, relationship distress no longer predicted FSC visits, whereas income served as a predictor for men and women, with those reporting greater monthly income attending more FSC visits.     

Same Sex Couples and Counselling:

This paper is about homosexual relationships and the way that clinicians and researchers have conceived them and then attempted to compare them with heterosexual models. When there are problems experienced by one or both people in a relationship the available conceptualizations are inadequate. The need for a different perception of these dyads in counseling is suggested. This paper extends earlier research with men and women who migrated to Australia as part of a same sex couple (Hart, 1990). My aim is to broaden the view of the social and personal dynamics of gay and lesbian couples in general. I conclude that couples, in or out of counseling, should be sited within gay and lesbian multicultural kinship patterns.     

Matching With Multiple Controls to Estimate Treatment Effects in Observational Studies

Matching to control for covariates in the estimation of treatment effects is not common in sociology, where multivariate data are most often analyzed using multiple regression and its generalizations. Matching can be a useful way to estimate these effects, especially when the treatment condition is comparatively rare in a population, and controls are numerous but mostly unlike the treatment cases. Matching on numerous covariates is abetted by the estimation of propensity scores, or functions of the probability that cases are treatments rather than controls. This procedure is illustrated in the estimation of the effects of an organizational innovation on Medicare mortality within hospitals; the data set is very large, but innovative hospitals few, and many of the remaining hospitals are quite unlike the hospitals constituting the treatment subsample. Results are based on a variance-components model that is extended to consider the effects of an additional covariate. They show effects of the organizational innovation comparable to those estimated via multiple regression models but with substantially reduced standard errors.     

Lesbian and Gay Couples Considering Parenthood:

When Americans reflect on what matters most to them, they often point to relationships with families and children. Historically, lesbian and gay Americans have faced legal, economic, and other forms of discrimination against their family relationships in general, and against their relationships with children in particular. Despite this history of discrimination, however, lesbians and gay men continue to form families, and many either are or wish to become parents. In this paper, I discuss special needs of lesbian and gay couples that are considering parenthood describe innovative services that have been developed to meet these needs, and identify directions for future research, service, and advocacy. Much work remains to be done before lesbian and gay Americans will be able to seek parenthood unencumbered by the burdens of prejudice, discrimination, and institutionalized heterosexism.     

A Longitudinal View of the Association Between Therapist Warmth and Couples' In‐Session Process: An Observational Pilot Study of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy

This longitudinal dyadic clinical process study used coded data from eleven couples to determine the influence of therapist warmth behaviors on couples' warmth behaviors over time in therapy. A mixed effects model was used to examine within‐ and between‐individual variability. Men and women were modeled separately. A series of two‐level multilevel models of change were examined, where Time is Level 1 and Individual is Level 2. Findings were mixed. There was no significant relationship between therapist warmth toward wife and wife warmth toward husband; however, there was a significant relationship between therapist warmth toward husband and husband warmth toward wife. Findings demonstrated that 62.9% of the variance in husband warmth toward wife was accounted for by therapist warmth to husband across time in therapy. Specifically, therapist warmth toward husband was significantly and positively related to husband warmth toward wife over time in therapy. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Results of Gottman Method Couples Therapy with Gay and Lesbian Couples

The results of an uncontrolled study of Gottman Method Couples Therapy in changing relationship satisfaction with 106 gay and lesbian couples is reported in this paper. Measurement of relationship satisfaction was conducted at five separate time points. The data show significant improvements in relationship satisfaction following eleven sessions of therapy for both gay male and lesbian couples. Effect sizes suggest that this therapy was highly effective, compared to the usual 0.5 standard deviation effect size in couples therapy. Initial co‐morbidities did not affect the size of the changes; in fact, some changes were significantly larger for three initial co‐morbidities.     

The Efficacy of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and Behavioral Couples Therapy: A Meta‐Analysis

Behavioral couple therapy (BCT) and emotionally focused couples therapy (EFCT) are well‐established treatments to reduce couple distress. This meta‐analysis summarizes the current state of knowledge on the efficacy of these two therapy methods by focusing on randomized controlled trials only. A literature search revealed 33 suitable primary studies (2,730 participants in total), all of them measuring relationship satisfaction. Robust‐variance random‐effects meta‐analysis revealed medium effect sizes at post‐test (overall: g = 0.60; BCT: g = 0.53; EFCT: g = 0.73) and small effect sizes of 6 months after treatment (overall: g = 0.44; BCT: g = 0.35; EFCT: g = 0.66), but these gains were not maintained after 12 months (BCT only: g = 0.06). Between the two therapy methods, no significant effect size differences could be found. Results have to be interpreted with caution due to potential publication bias.