Differentiation of Self and Dyadic Adjustment in Couple Relationships: A Dyadic Analysis Using the Actor‐Partner Interdependence Model

Bowen's multigenerational theory provides an account of how the internalization of experiences within the family of origin promotes development of the ability to maintain a distinct self whilst also making intimate connections with others. Differentiated people can maintain their I‐position in intimate relationships. They can remain calm in conflictual relationships, resolve relational problems effectively, and reach compromises. Fusion with others, emotional cut‐off, and emotional reactivity instead are common reactions to relational stress in undifferentiated people. Emotional reactivity is the tendency to react to stressors with irrational and intense emotional arousal. Fusion with others is an excessive emotional involvement in significant relationships, whilst emotional cut‐off is the tendency to manage relationship anxiety through physical and emotional distance. This study is based on Bowen's theory, starting from the assumption that dyadic adjustment can be affected both by a member's differentiation of self (actor effect) and by his or her partner's differentiation of self (partner effect). We used the Actor‐Partner Interdependence Model to study the relationship between differentiation of self and dyadic adjustment in a convenience sample of 137 heterosexual Italian couples (nonindependent, dyadic data). The couples completed the Differentiation of Self Inventory and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Men's dyadic adjustment depended only on their personal I‐position, whereas women's dyadic adjustment was affected by their personal I‐position and emotional cut‐off as well as by their partner's I‐position and emotional cut‐off. The empirical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.     

Informative Disagreements: Associations Between Relationship Distress,Depression, and Discrepancy in Interpersonal Perception Within Couples

This study evaluated the associations between relationship distress, depression symptoms, and discrepancy in interpersonal perception within couples. After completing a series of discussion tasks, couples (N = 88) rated their behavior using the circumplex‐based Structural Analysis of Social Behavior Model (SASB; Benjamin, 1979, 1987, 2000). Overall, couple members were strikingly similar in their interpersonal perceptions, and tended to see themselves as friendly, reciprocal in their focus, and balanced between connection and separateness. As hypothesized, however, perceptual discrepancy was related to relationship distress and depression. Relationship distress was associated with discrepancy regarding transitive behavior focused on the partner, while depression was associated with disagreement about intransitive, self‐focused behavior. Analysis of affiliation and autonomy revealed that relationship distress was associated with seeing oneself as reacting with more hostility than the partner sees, and perceiving one's partner as more hostile, more controlling, and less submissive than he or she does. Partners of depressed individuals viewed themselves as more controlling than their mate did. Men's depression was associated with disagreement between partners regarding men's self‐focused behavior. Results underscore the importance of considering interpersonal perception when conceptualizing relationship distress and depression within intimate relationships.     

Dyadic Coping in Couple Therapy Process: An Exploratory Study

This study aimed at moving beyond previous research on couple therapy efficacy by examining moment‐by‐moment proximal couple and therapist interactions as well as final treatment outcomes and their reciprocal association. Seven hundred four episodes of dyadic coping within 56 early therapy sessions, taken from 28 married couples in treatment, were intensively analyzed and processed using a mixed‐methods software (T‐LAB). Results showed that negative dyadic coping was self‐perpetuating, and therapists tended to passively observe the negative couple interaction; on the contrary, positive dyadic coping appeared to require a therapist's intervention to be maintained, and successful interventions mainly included information gathering as well as interpreting. Couples who dropped out of treatment were not actively engaged from the outset of therapy, and they used more negative dyadic coping, whereas couples who successfully completed treatment showed more positive dyadic coping very early in therapy. Results highlight the role of therapist action and control as critical to establishing rapport and credibility in couple therapy and suggest that dyadic coping patterns early in therapy may contribute to variable treatment response.     

Discovery of a Partner Affair and Major Depressive Episode in a Probability Sample of Married or Cohabiting Adults

Prior research has found that humiliating marital events are associated with depression. Building on this research, the current study investigated the association between one specific humiliating marital event—discovering that one's partner had an affair—and past‐year major depressive episode (MDE) in a probability sample of married or cohabiting men and women who were at high risk for depression based on the criterion that they scored below the midpoint on a measure of marital satisfaction (N = 227). Results indicate that (i) women were more likely than men to report discovering their partner had an affair in the prior 12 months; (ii) discovering a partner affair was associated with a higher prevalence of past‐year MDE and a lower level of marital adjustment; and (iii) the association between discovering a partner affair and MDE remained statistically significant when holding constant demographic variables and marital adjustment. These results support continued investigation into the impact that finding out about an affair has on the mental health of the person discovering a partner affair.     

Role of clarity of other's feelings for dyadic coping

Dyadic coping has repeatedly been associated with positive outcomes in intimate relationships. However, less is known about the prospective predictors of dyadic coping. This study investigates clarity of other's feelings (CoF) as a potential predictor of supportive dyadic coping in a longitudinal study. In a sample of 368 couples, self‐reported CoF and supportive dyadic coping perceived by the partner were assessed annually over 3 years. Results revealed that interpersonal differences in men and women's CoF are positively associated with interpersonal differences in supportive dyadic coping. Moreover, interpersonal differences in men's CoF predicted long‐term intrapersonal changes in supportive dyadic coping of both partners. Couple intervention programs might strengthen couple's dyadic coping skills by targeting men's understanding of their partner's feelings.     

Couples' Perceptions of Each Other's Daily Affect: Empathic Accuracy,Assumed Similarity,and Indirect Accuracy

This study examined couples' perceptions of each other's daily affect, using a daily diary methodology. Specifically, we tested the extent to which couples accurately inferred how their partner was feeling (empathic accuracy) and the extent to which spouses used their own feelings as a gauge for how their partner was feeling (assumed similarity). We also tested for indirect accuracy in couples' perceptions; that is, that assumed similarity in the context of actual similarity leads to empathic accuracy. Participants were 51 couples who completed daily diaries for seven consecutive nights. Results based on the Actor‐Partner Interdependence Model indicated that couples showed both empathic accuracy and assumed similarity in their perception of their partner's positive affect; however, they used assumed similarity in rating their partner's hard negative (anger, hostility) and soft negative (sadness, fear) affect. Furthermore, tests of indirect accuracy found that wives were indirectly accurate in perceiving their husbands' positive affect and both husbands and wives were indirectly accurate in perceiving each other's hard negative affect because they were biased. Complementing laboratory studies, the present study highlights that examining couples' perceptions of each other's feelings in contexts of daily life, and differentiating positive and negative emotions, can further our understanding of the role of emotions for healthy relationship functioning.     

Attachment and Family Processes in Children's Psychological Adjustment in Middle Childhood

This study examined the links between parent–child attachment, whole family interaction patterns, and child emotional adjustment and adaptability in a sample of 86 community families with children between the ages of 8 and 11 years. Family interactions were observed and coded with the System for Coding Interactions and Family Functioning (SCIFF; Lindahl, 2001). Both parents and each target child completed the appropriate form of the Behavior Assessment System for Children‐2nd Edition (BASC‐2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004). Target children also completed the Children's Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CCSQ; Yunger, Corby, & Perry, 2005). Hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that Secure mother–child attachment was a robust predictor of children's emotional symptoms, but father–child attachment strategies were not significant independent predictors. Positive Affect in family interactions significantly increased the amount of variance accounted for in children's emotional symptoms. In addition, Family Cohesion and Positive Affect moderated the relationship between father–child attachment and children's emotional symptoms. When data from all BASC‐2 informants (mother, father, child) were considered simultaneously and multidimensional constructs were modeled, mother–child security directly predicted children's adjustment and adaptive skills, but the influence of father–child security was fully mediated through positive family functioning. Results of the current study support the utility of considering dyadic attachment and family interaction patterns conjointly when conceptualizing and fostering positive emotional and behavioral outcomes in children.     

Depressive Symptoms,Criticism, and Counter‐Criticism in Marital Interactions

Although people with depressive symptoms face criticism, hostility, and rejection in their close relationships, we do not know how they respond. Following interpersonal theories of depression, it might be expected that depressive symptoms would be associated with a tendency to receive and also to express criticism toward one's spouse, and that at least some of this criticism would be a contingent response to criticism received (i.e., “counter‐criticism”). However, other research has determined that depressive symptoms/behaviors suppress partner criticism, suggesting that depressed people might respond to partner criticism similarly, by subsequently expressing less criticism. In a sample of 112 married couples, partial correlations, regressions, and Actor‐Partner Interdependence Modeling indicated that lower criticism and counter‐criticism expression during a laboratory marital interaction task was associated with higher depressive symptoms, especially when such individuals were clinically depressed. Furthermore, during a separate and private Five‐Minute Speech Sample, lower criticism by partners was associated with higher depressive symptoms, especially when those who chose the interaction topic were also clinically depressed. All analyses controlled for relationship adjustment. These results suggest that spouses with higher depressive symptoms and clinical depression diagnoses may be suppressing otherwise ordinary criticism expression toward their nondepressed partners; furthermore, nondepressed partners of depressed people are especially likely to display less criticism toward their spouse in a private task.     

Escalation and Regulation of Emotional Arousal in Couples Predicts Relationship Satisfaction Concurrently and 25 Years Later

Relationship distress and divorce are major risk factors for the development or exacerbation of psychopathology and psychosocial impairments. Given that heightened negative emotions within couples’ interactions may portend negative relationship outcomes, it is critical to understand how emotions unfold across a conversation and how partners may influence each other’s immediate emotional experiences. This study examined whether these regulatory dynamics within one interaction predicted relationship satisfaction concurrently and 25 years later. Vocally‐encoded emotional arousal (f₀) was measured during couples’ (N = 25 couples) conversations about a relationship issue. Across different analytical strategies, results demonstrate that one partner’s f₀ dynamics had immediate and long‐term associations with the other partner’s satisfaction. Partners were less satisfied if the other partner (a) expressed higher f₀ overall and (b) escalated more in f₀ across the conversation. Yet, partners were more satisfied when their f₀ escalated across the conversation. Also, women specifically were more satisfied if their f₀ remained elevated longer before regulating back to their emotional baseline. Thus, higher f₀ was associated with higher satisfaction in the same partner, but associated with less satisfaction in the other partner—particularly when these emotions come from women. It may be that partners have to decide whether to prioritize expressing their emotions fully or limit expression in the service of their partner’s happiness. These findings challenge us to think of ways to address this “win–lose” scenario so that couples can balance both partners’ emotional needs and preserve relationship quality across the life span.     

The Association between Symptom Accommodation and Emotional Coregulation in Couples with Binge Eating Disorder

Intense negative emotions and maladaptive behavioral strategies to reduce emotional distress occur not only in patients with various forms of psychopathology but also in their committed partners. One common strategy to reduce distress is for partners to accommodate to the symptoms of the disorder, which reduces distress short term but maintains symptoms long term. Accommodation is believed to be motivated by the partner reacting behaviorally to the patient's emotions, but the emotions of the partner in this context have yet to be examined. This pilot study examined how partner accommodation related to specific patterns of emotional coregulation between patients with binge eating disorder (BED) and their partners, before and after a couple‐based intervention for BED. Vocally encoded emotional arousal was measured during couples’ (n = 11) conversations about BED. As predicted, partners’ emotional reactivity to patients’ emotional arousal was associated with high accommodation before treatment. Thus, partners may use accommodation as a strategy to reduce both the patients’ and their own distress. After treatment, partners’ arousal was no longer associated with the patients’ emotional arousal; instead, partners showed greater emotional stability over time, specifically when accommodation was low. Additionally, patients were less emotionally aroused after treatment. Therefore, treatment may have decreased overall emotionality of patients and altered the association between accommodation and partners’ emotional reactivity. If replicated, this understanding of the emotional context associated with accommodation in BED can inform couple‐based treatment by targeting specific emotional precipitants of behaviors that maintain symptoms.     

Neuroticism and Marital Satisfaction During the Early Years of Chinese Marriage: The Mediating Roles of Marital Attribution and Aggression

On the basis of three annual waves of data obtained from 268 Chinese couples, we tested an actor–partner interdependence mediation model in which spouses’ neuroticism was linked to their own and partners’ marital satisfaction through both intrapersonal processes (i.e., marital attribution) and interpersonal processes (i.e., marital aggression). Considering intra‐ and interpersonal processes simultaneously, four indirect, mediating pathways were identified: Time 1 Wives’ Neuroticism → Time 2 Wives’ Attribution or Aggression, while controlling for Time 1 Wives’ Attribution or Aggression → Time 3 Wives’ or Husbands’ Marital Satisfaction, while controlling for Time 1 Wives’ or Husbands’ Marital Satisfaction. This study not only adds to a limited body of research examining why neuroticism is associated with conjugal well‐being, but also extends prior research by focusing on Chinese couples and utilizing a longitudinal, dyadic mediation model. Such findings have important practical implications. Couples involving neurotic partners may benefit from interventions based on cognitive‐behavioral approaches. When working with couples challenged by neuroticism, practitioners need to help them address dysfunctional interactive patterns as well as distorted cognitive styles.     

Relationship Quality with Parents: Implications for Own and Partner Well‐Being in Middle‐Aged Couples

Relationships with parents have significant implications for well‐being throughout the lifespan. At midlife, these ties are situated within both developmental and family contexts that often involve the adult offspring's spouse. Yet, it is not known how ties with aging parents are related to psychological well‐being within middle‐aged couples. This study examined how middle‐aged wives’ and husbands’ views of the current quality of relationships with their own parents (positive and negative) are linked to their own and their partner's psychological well‐being. Using a sample of 132 middle‐aged couples from Wave 1 of the Family Exchanges Study, we estimated actor–partner interdependence models to evaluate these dyadic associations while controlling for each spouse's marital satisfaction. Both actor and partner effects were observed. With respect to actor effects, wives who reported more negative relationship quality with their own parents had elevated depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction. Husbands who reported more negative relationship quality with their own parents had lower life satisfaction. In terms of partner effects, husbands had lower depressive symptoms and greater life satisfaction when wives reported more positive relationship quality with their own parents. Finally, the link between wives’ positive ties with parents and husbands’ lower depressive symptoms was intensified when husbands had less positive relationships with their own parents. Findings suggest that relationship quality with wives’ aging parents has implications for both spouses’ well‐being and may serve as a critical social resource for husbands.     

Parents as Partners: A U.K. Trial of a U.S. Couples‐Based Parenting Intervention For At‐Risk Low‐Income Families

Despite the well‐established links between couple relationship quality and healthy family functioning, and burgeoning evidence from the international intervention field, there is little or no evidence of the efficacy of couples‐based interventions from the United Kingdom (U.K.). This study explored whether the Parents as Partners (PasP) program, a group‐based intervention developed in the United States, brought about the same benefits in the U.K. The evaluation is based on 97 couples with children from communities with high levels of need, recruited to PasP because they are at high risk for parent and child psychopathology. Both mothers and fathers completed self‐report questionnaires assessing parents’ psychological distress, parenting stress, couple relationship quality and conflict, fathers’ involvement in child care and, importantly, children's adjustment. Multilevel modeling analysis comparing parents’ responses pre‐ and postintervention not only showed substantial improvements for both parents on multiple measures of couple relationship quality, but also improvements in parent and child psychopathology. Analyses also indicated most substantial benefits for couples displaying poorest functioning at baseline. The findings provide initial evidence for the successful implementation of PasP, an American‐origin program, in the U.K., and add support for the concept of the couple relationship as a resource by which to strengthen families.     

The Meaning of the Sperm Donor for Heterosexual Couples: Confirming the Position of the Father

In the literature, relatively little attention has been paid to the meaning of donor involvement in the intimate couple dyad. The current study aimed to enrich our understanding of couples' meaning‐making regarding the anonymous sperm donor and how they dealt with the donor involvement. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with nine couples, who had at least one child conceived through sperm donation. Our thematic analysis showed that the donor conception was seen as a different path to create a normal family. Once the family was formed, most couples avoided talking about the donor because it was perceived as disrupting men's growing confidence in their position as father. Participants tried to confirm the position of the father to protect the family relationships. Uncertainties about how they were perceived as parents showed the continuing dominance of genetic ties within our social discourse. Participants also dealt with reminders of the donor in their daily life. Overall, they tried to manage the space taken up by the donor and to protect the position of the father. We relate our findings to literature on topic avoidance and shared obliviousness in families. For counseling practice, it could be useful to explore couples' meaning‐making about the donor as this seemed to serve family functioning.     

Cooperation or Tension? Dyadic Coping in Cystic Fibrosis

Following a rise in the life expectancy of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, many adults with CF form couple relationships. Yet, dyadic coping has not been previously examined in people with CF. This study examined how adults with CF and their partners cope as a couple with the illness, and what meanings each partner and the couple as a unit attribute to the experience. Seventeen adult CF patients and their partners participated in separate semi‐structured in‐depth interviews. Two main patterns of dyadic coping with CF were identified as follows: cooperation and tension. For couples in cooperation, the marital relationship served as a resource for adaptive coping. These couples were characterized by similarities in their perception of the place of CF in their lives and of their roles in the marital relationship. Couples in tension described the couple relationship as strained by difficulty of accepting the disease, proliferation of negative emotions, and a sense of burden and loneliness in the process of coping. Findings point to the importance of mutual empathy, clear and accepted division of roles between the partners, and open communication for facilitating coping as a couple.     

Interpersonal coping styles and couple relationship quality: Similarity versus complementarity hypotheses

This study employs a dyadic approach and examines how two partners' interpersonal coping styles may independently and jointly predict their relationship quality. Hypotheses were derived on the basis of dyadic coping theory focusing on how similar versus complementary styles of interpersonal coping may be useful in explaining couples' relationship quality. On the basis of attachment theory and self‐determination theory, three interpersonal coping styles were included: dismissive, adaptive, and anxious/expressive. Data were collected from 123 romantic couples. Actor–partner interdependence models revealed that interpersonal coping styles were related to self‐perceived (actor effect) and partner‐perceived (partner effect) relationship quality. Furthermore, results also showed that relationship quality was predicted by the interactions between self's and partner's interpersonal coping styles. Findings suggest that future research should focus on understanding interpersonal coping behaviors of both partners in a relationship, especially the complex interactions between two partners' characteristics and their effects on relationship outcomes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Addressing the Person of the Therapist in Supervision: The Therapist's Inner Conversation Method

In this study a method of retrospective case supervision is presented aimed at helping the supervisee to become a better self‐supervisor. The method pays special attention to the therapist's self‐reflection and has the therapist's inner conversation as a central concept. The starting point of the method is an assignment in which the supervisee reflects on a case using a tape‐assisted recall procedure. The method helps trainees to develop experiential expertise to become more flexible and effective therapists. A case example of one training group of novice family therapists illustrates the use of the method.     

Constructing We‐ness: A Communal Coping Intervention for Couples Facing Chronic Illness

Communal coping occurs when relationship partners view a stressful health problem as “ours,” rather than yours or mine, and take collaborative action to deal with it. Although research employing linguistic (we‐talk) and other measures of communal coping demonstrates relevance to a variety of chronic illnesses, the literature offers little about how clinicians can actively promote we‐ness and teamwork to help patients and their partners achieve the health benefits this appears to confer. This paper highlights clinical and supporting scientific features of a narrative intervention designed to foster communal coping by couples in which one partner has a chronic illness. The illustrative illness is diabetes, but with modification the protocol is suitable for other chronic conditions as well. Grounded in systemic and narrative models of problem maintenance and change, the communal coping intervention represents a distillation of research and clinical experience with family consultation over several decades. In contrast to more directive and educational approaches, the intervention consists entirely of questions, with no direct suggestions or instruction about how patients, partners, or couples should change. These questions comprise 8 sequential modules (Coping Challenges, Trajectory and Focus, Illness as External Invader, You as a Couple, Past Teamwork in Overcoming Adversity, Present and Future Teamwork, Obstacles to Teamwork, and Wrap‐Up), described here in manual‐like detail.     

Attachment insecurities and interpersonal processes in Spanish couples: A dyadic approach

Several attachment‐related phenomena in Spanish couples using dyadic‐level analyses were examined. A sample of 295 heterosexual couples completed measures of attachment‐related anxiety and avoidance, self‐esteem, social self‐efficacy, and relationship satisfaction. Results, analyzed from a dyadic perspective using the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM), indicate that (a) there are actor but no partner effects of attachment insecurities on intrapersonal variables such as self‐esteem and social self‐efficacy, (b) there are actor and partner effects of avoidant attachment on relationship satisfaction, and (c) actor anxiety is associated with partner avoidance, and actor avoidance is associated with partner anxiety. Overall, the results reveal the importance of a dyadic perspective on couple members' attachment insecurities and their associations with intrapersonal and interpersonal processes and relationship adjustment. They also show that attachment variables and correlates studied mainly in English‐speaking countries are useful in understanding Spanish couple dynamics.     

The reciprocal cycle of self‐concealment and trust in romantic relationships

We propose that perceived partner concealment, self‐concealment from one's partner (i.e., keeping secrets from one's partner), and trust in one's partner form a reciprocal cycle in romantic relationships. In Study 1, participants in a romantic relationship (N = 94) completed a two‐time point survey within a span of 8 to 10 weeks. Results revealed that perceived partner concealment was associated with a loss of trust in partner, and low trust in partner was associated with an increase in self‐concealment from one's partner. Furthermore, the association between perceived partner concealment and self‐concealment from one's partner was mediated by trust. In Study 2, couples (N = 50) completed daily records for 14 consecutive days. Multilevel analyses indicated that on the days the individuals reported more self‐concealment, their partners reported lower trust in them. Moreover, on the days the partners reported lower trust, the partners also reported higher self‐concealment. These findings suggest that self‐concealment in romantic relationships can create a reciprocal cycle that involves loss of trust and more self‐concealment between partners, which would slowly deteriorate the relationship well‐being. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.