Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Training in EFT: A Multinational Study in Spanish-speaking Countries

This study seeks to validate the cross-cultural effectiveness of emotionally focused couple therapy (EFT) training in a sample of Spanish-speaking clinicians. The 28-hr formalized training for EFT was offered in six different Spanish-speaking countries, covering Europe, North America, Central America, and South America. Two hundred and seven therapists of 14 different Spanish-speaking nationalities completed pre-training assessments, 153 of them completed post-training assessments, and 92 therapists also completed the follow-up assessment. Using multilevel growth modeling (MLM), results indicated that therapists experienced significant and positive changes in terms of EFT competence (knowledge and skill acquisition), mature empathy, self-compassion, and attachment over time. Implications for transnational EFT training, specifically in Spanish-speaking countries, are discussed.     

是否该换换你的业务模式了？

企业不应当死守单一的业务模式不放 在管制放松、全球化、创新、数字 化的共同作用之下,传统上与 特定行业相联系的业务模式开 始瓦解。结果呢?“我们不再谈论自己处 于什么行业,而是运用何种业务模式。”哈     

The experience of learning Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy

This study examined the process of learning Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) as reported by 122 EFT therapists and therapists-in-training. Participants completed an online questionnaire assessing their experiences of learning EFT, with particular emphasis on EFT theory, alliance, interventions, perceived impact on clients, and impact on self. Findings suggest that therapists are drawn to the attachment-based model of EFT, appreciate the EFT framework and structure, that clients endorse the usefulness of the model and that learning the model has contributed to personal healing and improved relationships for the trainees. Results also show that the transition to EFT from another model can be taxing and requires time, support, and additional supervision/training to increase comfort level and competency with EFT. Nevertheless, results also highlight that learning EFT can be a rewarding and worthwhile endeavor.     

Changes in children's time with parents: United States, 1981-1997

In this paper we examine changes in the time American children spent with their parents between 1981 and 1997, and the contribution to these changes made by shifting patterns of female labor force participation, family structure, and parental education. We decompose changes into the parts attributable to changes in demographic characteristics and the parts probably due to changes in behavior. In general, children's time with parents did not decrease over the period; in two-parent families it increased substantially. Population-level changes in demographic characteristics exerted only small direct effects on the time children spent with parents.     

The Role of Attachment Behaviors in the Link between Relationship Satisfaction and Depression in Clinical Couples: Implications for Clinical Practice

Using dyadic, clinical data from 104 couples in committed relationships, the purpose of this study was to determine whether relationship satisfaction was associated with depression through perceived partner attachment behaviors—accessibility, responsiveness, and engagement—for both men and women. We found that one's satisfaction in the relationship was the lens through which they viewed their partner's attachment behaviors and—women's relationship satisfaction was the lens through which her male partner viewed her attachment behaviors. Finally, women's relationship satisfaction is associated with both individuals' depression through her perceived partner's accessibility, responsiveness, and engagement. The findings from this study are important because they provide clinically relevant and mutable constructs in which clinicians can intervene at an attachment level in distressed marriages with depressed partners.     

Gangster,victim or both? The interdiscursive construction of sameness and difference in self‐presentations

The paper conceptualizes two contradictory discourses, both used by ethnic minority drug dealers in a street drug market in Oslo, Norway. Oppression discourse includes personal narratives of unemployment, racism and psycho-social problems, often combined with stories about the government and city council being unwilling to help. Drug dealers use the discourse to justify drug dealing and violence, both for themselves and in meetings with welfare organizations. Gangster discourse , on the other hand, includes a series of personal narratives emphasizing how hard, smart, and sexually alluring the young men are. Drug dealers use this discourse to gain self-respect and respect from others, and it dominates interactions on the street. An important argument in this paper is that the discursive practice of criminals inspires theoretical perspectives on criminal practice. Oppression and gangster discourses have inspired, respectively, neutralization and subculture theory. When the same people use both discourses, however, the picture becomes more complicated. The 'bilingual' discursive practice of the street drug dealers reflects the ambivalent role of the researcher, and a Scandinavian institutional and social context where street drug dealers have extensive contact with a welfare state apparatus. The paper still suggests that similar interdiscursivity may have been sacrificed in previous research to produce more coherent theoretical frameworks.     

Children's Time With Fathers in Intact Families

This paper uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine children's involvement with their fathers in intact families as measured through time spent together. Our findings suggest that although mothers still shoulder the lion's share of the parenting, fathers' involvement relative to that of mothers appears to be on the increase. A “new father” role is emerging on weekends in intact families. Different determinants of fathers' involvement were found on weekdays and on weekends. Fathers' wages and work hours have a negative relationship with the time they spend with a child on weekdays, but not on weekends. Mothers' work hours have no effect on children's time with fathers. On weekends, Black fathers were found to be less involved and Latino fathers more involved with their children than are White fathers. The weekday‐weekend differential suggests that a simple gender inequality theory is not sufficient in explaining the dynamics of household division of labor in today's American families.     

Gender differences in attitudinal acceptance of intimate partner violence perpetration under attachment-relevant contexts

Attachment theory has been one of the leading theoretical frameworks in the last few decades for explaining physical violence within romantic relationships. In this study, the authors examined differences in attachment patterns and attitudinal acceptance of violence perpetrated in romantic relationships among men and women. The Attitudinal Acceptance of Intimate Partner Violence questionnaire was developed to measure acceptance of intimate partner violence (IPV) under attachment-relevant contexts of abandonment, as well as other contexts identified in the literature. Results indicated that men with higher degrees of attachment anxiety were more accepting of both male- and female-perpetrated IPV under contexts of abandonment, and men with higher degrees of attachment avoidance were more accepting of female-perpetrated IPV under contexts of abandonment. Implications for research and treatment are discussed.     

Refining the Conceptualization and Measurement of Women’s Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa Using Data from the 2013 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey

The measurement of women’s empowerment has long eluded academics and practitioners alike. A key challenge relates to the way researchers construct measures of empowerment, pairing indicators together in either composite indices, or multiple dimensions. This study tests three commonly found measurement models of women’s empowerment using data from the 2013 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey. Model fit statistics indicate that a seven factor first order Functional Scales of Empowerment model best fits the data. Implications following from this study’s findings include that simplification into composite indices, a commonly used method to aggregate indicators of empowerment may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the effect of empowerment on development and health outcomes and hamper comparative research. The results from this study contribute to the highly important and often ignored discussion regarding measurement of women’s empowerment.