Relationship control and interpersonal perception in marriage

The correlation between married couples' interpersonal perception and relationship control in communication was investigated. A normated, standardized and shortened version of Laing et al. 's Interpersonal Perception method (IPM) was used to measure interpersonal perception. The test contain three levels of perception, namely (1) direct perception of the relationship, (2) misunderstandings, and (3) disagreements about the relationship. The couples' relationship control was observed in three different situations. Previous studies have found the amount of one-upmanship in married couples to be associated with problems of interpersonal perception. Although different methods were applied in the present study, this finding was replicated to some extent. Additionally, the results indicate that the more the couples communicated to each other that they both had the right to control the relationship, the less problems they had in interpersonal perception. The results also strongly suggest that couples communicating in egocentric and self-disqualifying ways perceive their marriage as less satisfying, and they also perceive each other's feelings and behaviours less accurately than those who have little or no such deviant communication.     

Early tactile experience of low birth weight children: links to later mental health and social adaptation

The purpose of this study was twofold: to determine (1) the degree to which specific qualities of maternal touch may contribute to the low birth weight infant's emotional and behavioural problems as well as social adaptation, and (2) the relationship between maternal touch and a mother's other caregiving behaviour. The sample included 114 socioculturally diverse infants and their mothers who were videotaped during an infant feeding when the baby was 3 months old. This videotape was analysed to assess dimensions of mother–infant interaction, including maternal touch. Data on perinatal risk and the mother's acceptance versus rejection of the infant were also acquired. Social adaptation and emotional/behavioural problems were measured when the child was 2 years of age. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that maternal touch accounted for 15% of the variance in the likelihood of a child having emotional/behavioural problems at age 2. Children who received more nurturing touch had significantly fewer internalizing problems (such as depression) while children receiving both more frequent touch and harsh touch had more externalizing problems (such as aggressive behaviour). Infants who were less responsive to their caregivers were especially at risk of developing aggressive/destructive behaviour as a result of frequent touch. But less responsive infants also appeared to benefit most from greater use of diverse types of maternal touch, accounting for 6% of the variance in superior adaptive behaviour at age 2. Nurturing touch was the only quality that showed even a modest relationship to other caregiving behaviour, suggesting that touch may play a distinct role in the infant's psychosocial development. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why do even satisfied newlyweds eventually go on to divorce?

Although divorce typically follows an extended period of unhappiness that begins early in marriage, some couples who are very happy throughout the first several years of marriage will also go on to divorce. This study aimed to identify risk factors early in marriage that distinguish initially satisfied couples who eventually divorce from those who remain married. We identified 136 couples reporting stably high levels of relationship satisfaction in the first 4 years of marriage. We compared the couples who went on to divorce by the 10-year follow-up with the couples who remained married on initial measures of commitment, observed communication, stress, and personality. Divorcing couples displayed more negative communication, emotion, and social support as newlyweds compared with couples who did not divorce. No significant differences were found in the other domains, in relationship satisfaction, or in positive behaviors. Overall, results indicate that even couples who are very successful at navigating the early years of marriage can be vulnerable to later dissolution if their interpersonal exchanges are poorly regulated. We speculate that, paradoxically, the many strengths possessed by these couples may mask their potent interpersonal liabilities, posing challenges for educational interventions designed to help these couples.     

Perceived Marital Problems in Taiwan

With the expansion of the practice of marriage and family therapy outside of the U.S. and Western Europe, it important to gain a better understanding of family interaction and processes in other cultures and countries. Several studies have examined the problems that couples experience in the United States, but little is understood about problems that couples in Asia experience. In this study, perceptions of relationship problems experienced by 213 married couples living in urban Taiwan were examined. Results indicated that raising children and communication were the two problems most frequently reported by both husbands and wives. Among eight relationship problem areas, the only gender difference was in the area of communication, with wives significantly more likely to report it as a problem. An examination of within-dyad agreement indicated that couples generally had high consensus regarding relationship problems. Implications of this research for culturally-sensitive MFT practice are discussed.     

The Effects of a Couples‐Based Health Behavior Intervention During Pregnancy on Latino Couples’ Dyadic Satisfaction Postpartum

Many couples tend to report steadily decreasing relationship quality following the birth of a child. However, little is known about the postpartum period for Latino couples, a rapidly growing ethnic group who are notably underserved by mental and physical health caregivers in the United States. Thus, this study investigated whether a brief couples’ intervention focused on helping couples support each other while increasing healthy behaviors might improve dyadic functioning postpartum. This study presents secondary analyses of data regarding couple functioning from a larger randomized controlled trial with 348 Latino couples to promote smoking cessation. Portions of the intervention taught the couple communication and problem‐solving skills to increase healthy behavior. Couples participated in four face‐to‐face assessments across 1 year starting at the end of the first trimester. Latent growth curve analyses revealed that the treatment group reported an increase in relationship satisfaction and constructive communication after the intervention, which diminished by 1‐year follow‐up, returning couples to their baseline levels of satisfaction. Results suggest that incorporating a brief couple intervention as part of a larger health intervention for Latinos may prevent postpartum decreases in relationship satisfaction.     

The effects of baby bath and massage by fathers on the family system: The sunraysia australia intervention project

Instruction in baby massage and the Burleigh Relaxation Bath technique was given to one-half of our sample of 32 couples who had just had their first child. This brief intervention, given at 4 weeks post-partum, led to beneficial behavioural and psychological effects for the family system when assessed at 12 weeks postpartum. Depression and marital satisfaction were assessed with mothers and fathers at 4 weeks and 12 weeks after the birth of their child, and self-esteem was measured at 12 weeks only. The mothers and fathers who were shown baby bathing and massage techniques showed higher degrees of marital satisfaction and self-esteem, as well as lower levels of depression at 12 weeks post-partum, than parents who did not receive instruction. It seems likely that brief interventions which educate new parents concerning functional techniques of baby care may favourably affect their feelings of competence and be of benefit to the entire family system.     

Impact evaluation of the family expectations program and moderation by sociodemographic disadvantage

The federal government, through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), has funded community-based relationship education programs for couples, individuals, and families, with a strong focus on serving economically disadvantaged and racially diverse families. This study evaluated the impact of a 36-hour, workshop-based couple relationship education program that was funded by ACF using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design and intent-to-treat (ITT) analyses. Participants were 1320 couples who were either expecting a baby or had a baby within the past 3 months, at the time of enrollment. Follow-up surveys were administered 12 months later. Analyses evaluated program impacts on relationship stability, constructive communication, and destructive conflict compared to a no-treatment control group. Analyses showed a statistically significant impact of the program on destructive conflict (d = 0.10) but not on constructive communication (d = 0.06) or stability (d_Cox = 0.10). Based on findings from previous evaluations, we also examined whether participants’ levels of sociodemographic disadvantage moderated these effects. There was significant moderation by sociodemographic disadvantage on constructive communication and destructive conflict, but not on stability. Effects were observed for those at higher levels of sociodemographic disadvantage.     

Associations of a Sexually Transmitted Disease Diagnosis During a Relationship with Condom Use and Psychosocial Outcomes: (Short) Windows of Opportunity

Few studies have examined whether and how receiving an sexually transmitted disease (STD) diagnosis while in a romantic relationship relates to condom use and psychosocial sexual outcomes. Using dyadic data, we examined associations of a personal or a partner’s STD diagnosis during a relationship with condom use, monogamy intentions, condom intentions and attitudes, and STD susceptibility and communication. Because beliefs about how the STD was acquired may shape associations with behavior and cognitions, gender and suspecting that one’s partner had other sexual partners (i.e., partner concurrency) were examined as moderators. Participants were 592 individuals in 296 couples expecting a baby; 108 individuals had been diagnosed with an STD during the relationship. Personal STD diagnosis was unrelated to outcomes or was associated with increased risk. A partner’s diagnosis related to more positive condom intentions and attitudes. Among men who suspected concurrency, both a personal and a partner’s STD diagnosis were associated with less condom use. Receiving the STD diagnosis during pregnancy was associated with greater susceptibility and marginally greater condom use. Results suggest potential benefits of enhancing communication and encouraging joint risk reduction counseling among couples, engaging men more fully in preventive efforts, and capitalizing on the short window during which risk reduction occurs.     

Intergenerational transmission of marital quality across the transition to parenthood

One of the most frequently reported changes across the transition to parenthood is a decline in marital quality after the birth of a first baby. Experiences in the family of origin may influence the trajectory of marital quality. Our study aimed to investigate the impact of recollections of family-of-origin marriage on marital quality (self-reports and clinical evaluation) from pregnancy to 1 year after the birth of a first child. A total of 62 first-time parents completed questionnaires (self-reported marital satisfaction) and clinical interviews (clinical evaluation of couples' dialogue quality). Although self-reported marital satisfaction and observed dialogue quality were highly associated, only self-reported marital satisfaction declined from pregnancy to 1 year after birth. This decrease was partly due to very high marital satisfaction during pregnancy. Different trajectories for self-reported marital satisfaction and observed dialogue quality were found for participants with recollections of low-, average-, and high-quality family-of-origin marriage. A structural equation model showed that participants who recollected a negative quality in their parents' relationship reported more negative changes in the quality of their own marriages. There seems to be an intergenerational transmission of marital quality that comes to light when couples are challenged by the birth and rearing of a baby.     

Young adult couples’ behavioral and physiological responses to the infant simulator: A preliminary illustration of coparenting

This exploratory application of the infant simulator with two couples is designed to illustrate individual reactivity and coparenting behaviors in young couples in serious relationships who do not yet have children. A 35-min protocol with standardized onsets and offsets of inconsolable baby cries was used to capture partner’s individual behavioral and physiological responses as well as the couple’s joint efforts to soothe the crying baby. Task feasibility was demonstrated by couples’ persistent and wide-ranging efforts to calm the baby including rocking, feeding, changing, talking to the baby, and singing. Within-person fluctuations in ongoing heart rate (HR) and electrodermal activity (EDA) through the protocol suggested evidence of heightened physiological reactivity during baby crying compared to silence. During bouts of crying, higher HR also was evidenced when participants took the lead in caregiving as contrasted with assisting or busying themselves in another task. Behavioral observations indicated that this task elicited examples of coparenting behaviors including cooperation, support, undermining, and negotiating the division of labor. These preliminary pilot data demonstrate the potential of infant simulator paradigms with couples who are not yet pregnant but envision being future parents, and set the stage for future research to identify how individual and couple characteristics might impact reactions to shared baby caregiving.     

An experimental method for inquiring into communication

An experimental method for inquiring into the organization of an act of communication is presented, the basic idea being to create an interactional setting where one of the basic prerequisites for successful communication is not satisfied. In this particular design, the subjects interact under the false belief that they are sharing the same ?here'. (In mean the subjects interacted more than a quarter of an hour before any doubt or suspicion about the situation was expressed, indicating that our manipulation had been successful.) During the subjects trying (1) to ?diagnose' their communicative difficulties, and (2) to apply different ?therapeutic tools' in order to improve their communication, one is in a very good position to study the impact from a variety of basic phenomena upon communication. It is argued that this situation may well be applied as a ?standard experimental method'. And an experiment where this method revealed interesting differences in the communication between couples having and couples not having a schizophrenic offspring is discussed.     

The effects of childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder on women and their relationships: a qualitative study

There is converging evidence that 1%-2% of women develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of childbirth. The current study aimed to explore the long-term effects of childbirth-related PTSD on women, their relationship with their partner and their relationship with their child. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with six women who reported clinically significant PTSD after birth, ranging from 7 months to 18 years beforehand. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Childbirth-related PTSD was found to have wide-ranging effects on women and their relationships. Women reported changes in physical well-being, mood and behaviour, social interaction, and fear of childbirth. Women reported negative effects on their relationship with their partner, including sexual dysfunction, disagreements and blame for events of birth. The mother-baby bond was also seriously affected. Nearly all women reported initial feelings of rejection towards the baby but this changed over time. Long-term, women seemed to have either avoidant or anxious attachments with their child. It is concluded that childbirth-related PTSD can have severe and lasting effects on women and their relationships with their partner and children. Further research is needed to compare this to normal difficulties experienced by women after having children.     

A brief report of women's expectations of men's behaviour in the transition to parenthood: Contradictions and conflicts for counselling psychology practice

Couples often seek counselling in the first year following the birth of a baby. The role and image of active fatherhood has affected women's expectations that their male partners will engage in baby/child care and other domestic activities. This pilot study of women undergoing the transition to motherhood within a heterosexual couple relationship indicates that women's expectations and men's ‘promises' and media images of fatherhood do not coincide with behaviour and that this causes and amplifies stress in the relationship. Counselling psychologists often focus upon the woman's involvement with the baby or lack of partner support as the main problematic dimension in the couple's well-being. It is suggested here, from the findings summarized, that more research needs to be done on the mismatch between changing attitudes to fathering and the impact of the consequent, apparently false expectations of men's behaviour in the early years of parenthood.     

Understanding and Assisting Couples Affected by an Eating Disorder

This article reviews the existing literature on heterosexual intimate relationships in which the female partner has an eating disorder. These couples often have trouble in a number of areas, including communication, sexual functioning, relational boundaries, and emotional health. Not only do these problems contribute to lower rates of relational satisfaction but they also affect a woman's chances for recovery. An understanding of this literature can inform family therapy practice. Recommendations are offered for those who provide counseling to these couples.     

Family Mobilization: Work with Angry Elderly Couples in Declining Health

When elderly angry couples face difficulties in caring for each other, the ability to monitor each other's health problems is reduced, prompting the mobilization of the family. This article presents three sets of questions that examine for patterns of family mobilization: positive wedging, disentanglement failure, positive in-and-out participation, and defensive paralleling. In our clinical impression, these patterns often accompany the health monitoring problems of angry elderly couples. Brief case studies are used to describe approaches for assisting these couples in terms of both health monitoring and marital interactions involving anger during health decline. A procedure of deliberate paralleling for working with couples who display an especially inflexible interpersonal arrangement is outlined. Implications are drawn for therapists' education.     

Rational emotive behaviour therapy in the treatment of stress

Rational emotive behaviour therapists view stress-related disorders as originating in irrational beliefs (iB's), philosophies and attitudes, as opposed to the stressor. People who suffer from stress differ from people who suffer from emotional or neurotic problems mainly in that the stressed people have iB's about specific, short-term or more readily identifiable events, as opposed to the more mundane and diffuse difficulties suffered by the neurotic individual. Both the conscious and unconscious antecedents to stress difficulties and how they relate to distorted thinking and psychophysiological disorders are discussed from an information-processing perspective. Rational emotive behaviour treatments for stress-related disorders are detailed and explained.     

Adjustment to relationship dissolution in gay,lesbian, and heterosexual partners

Twenty-six gay, 24 lesbian, and 49 heterosexual (19 male and 30 female) individuals who were separated from their relationship partner for about 6 months provided reasons why their relationship ended and rated their current separation distress. Relative to partners in heterosexual couples, those in gay or lesbian couples did not differ in reasons for the separation or in level of separation distress. Aspects of relationship quality assessed shortly before the separation occurred did not predict later separation distress. However, individuals who indicated that problems with intimacy were the cause of the separation were unlikely to be distressed by the separation, whereas individuals who indicated that problems with communication were the cause of the separation were likely to be distressed by the separation. Separation distress was positively related to the severity of neurotic symptoms reported when the relationship was intact and was negatively related to the extent to which the separation was expected. It is concluded that separation distress is more strongly related to personal strategies for coping with stress than to relationship-related events leading to separation.     

Longitudinal associations between relationship problems,divorce, and life satisfaction: Findings from a 15-year population-based study

Relationship problems are negatively associated with life satisfaction. Bottom-up theories assume that relationship quality affects life satisfaction while top-down theories assume that global personality dispositions affect evaluations of relationship quality. Only bottom-up theories imply that the negative association between relationship problems and life satisfaction will be removed when the relationship is ended and that divorce thus may be a positive event for persons from troubled relationships. In this study associations between relationship problems, divorce, and life satisfaction were examined among 369 heterosexual couples. Relationship problems predicted life satisfaction 15 years later in both men and women. This association was significantly stronger among not-divorced than among divorced couples. Among couples with severe relationship problems those who divorced had higher life satisfaction at 15-year follow-up than those who remained together while the reverse was true among less troubled couples. The findings thus support bottom-up theories of life satisfaction.     

Power in relationships of women with depression

To identify marital power difficulties specifically associated with depression, twenty couples in which the female partner was depressed were compared on a range of interpersonal power variables with twenty healthy control couples and also with twenty couples in which the female partner had a disorder other than depression (specifically panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA)). Couples in the depressed group had two features that distinguished them from couples in both the PDA and control groups and which were independent of relationship dissatisfaction. In the depressed group, both partners reported more physical assault in the year prior to the study and depressed women were more dissatisfied with their control of surplus spending money. Couples in the depressed group had a series of features that distinguished them from couples in both the PDA and control groups but which were due in part to relationship dissatisfaction. Depressed women were less committed to their relationships. Both partners in depressed couples reported more demand–withdraw transactions and less mutual constructive communication within their relationships. Depressed women reported more dissatisfaction with decision-making and greater dissatisfaction in childcare task distribution.