Vulnerable Emotional Expression In Emotion Focused Couples Therapy: Relating Interactional Processes To Outcome

This study examined whether interactions characterized by high expression of emotional vulnerability in one partner followed by a highly supportive response style by the other partner predicted greater improvement on domains of forgiveness, unfinished business, trust, and relationship satisfaction in a sample of 32 couples presenting for Emotion Focused Couples Therapy with unresolved emotional injuries. For each outcome measure, two separate hierarchical regression models were tested (injured partner vulnerability and offending partner supportiveness; offending partner vulnerability and injured partner supportiveness). Both models significantly predicted improvement on the majority of outcome measures. Practice suggestions for working with emotionally injured couples are provided in light of the findings.     

Geographical Dimensions and Correlates of Trust

A sample of 323 residents of New Jersey stratified by neighborhood quality (excellent, good, fair, poor) was gathered to determine if trust in science and technology to protect public health and environment at the societal scale was associated with trust of the local officials, such as the mayor, health officer, developers, mass media, and legislators who are guardians of the local environment. Societal (trust of science and technology) and neighborhood (mayor, health officer) dimensions of trust were found. These societal and neighborhood trust dimensions were weakly correlated. Respondents were divided into four trust-of-authority groups: high societal–high neighborhood, low societal–low neighborhood, high societal–low neighborhood, and low societal–high neighborhood. High societal–high neighborhood trust respondents were older, had lived in the neighborhoods for many years, were not troubled much by neighborhood or societal environmental threats, and had a strong sense of control over their environment. In strong contrast, low societal–low neighborhood trust respondents were relatively young, typically had lived in their present neighborhood for a short time, were troubled by numerous neighborhood and societal environmental threats, did not practice many personal public health practices, and felt little control over their environment.     

Interpersonal Forgiveness in Emotion‐Focused Couples' Therapy: Relating Process to Outcome

The objective of this study was to relate the in‐session processes involved in interpersonal forgiveness to outcome. The sample consisted of 33 couples who received 10–12 sessions of Emotion‐focused couple therapy with the aim of resolving various forms of emotional injuries (i.e., transgression that violates the expectations of a close relationship, which leaves one partner feeling hurt and angry). The results of the present study were based on the analyses of 205 video‐taped segments from 33 couples' therapies. Hypotheses relating the role of three in‐session components of resolution, the injurer's “expression of shame”; the injured partner's “accepting response” to the shame, and the injured partner's “in‐session expression of forgiveness”, to outcome were tested using hierarchical linear regression analyses. Outcome measures included the Enright Forgiveness Inventory (The Enright Forgiveness Inventory user's manual. Madison: The International Forgiveness Institute, 2000), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Journal of Marriage and Family, 1976; 13: 723) and the The Interpersonal Trust Scale (Trust; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1985; 49: 95).     

Parental disruption and the labour market performance of children when they reach adulthood

This paper uses data from the age 33 wave of the British National Child Development Survey (NCDS) to analyze the effects of a parental disruption (divorce or death of a father) on the labour market performance of children when they reach adulthood. The NCDS is a longitudinal study of all children born during the first week of March 1958 in England, Scotland, and Wales. Controlling for a rich set of pre-disruption characteristics, the results indicate that a parental disruption leads to moderately less employment among males and considerably lower wage rates among females at age 33. If pre-disruption characteristics are not controlled for, larger effects are estimated for both males and females. Parental disruption also seems to cause substantial reductions in educational attainment for both males and females. Received: 22 May 1998/Accepted: 27 April 1999     

On conditional variance estimation in nonparametric regression

In this paper we consider a nonparametric regression model in which the conditional variance function is assumed to vary smoothly with the predictor. We offer an easily implemented and fully Bayesian approach that involves the Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling of standard distributions. This method is based on a technique utilized by Kim, Shephard, and Chib (in Rev. Econ. Stud. 65:361–393, 1998) for the stochastic volatility model. Although the (parametric or nonparametric) heteroscedastic regression and stochastic volatility models are quite different, they share the same structure as far as the estimation of the conditional variance function is concerned, a point that has been previously overlooked. Our method can be employed in the frequentist context and in Bayesian models more general than those considered in this paper. Illustrations of the method are provided.