The Effect of Reminiscing about Laughter on Relationship Satisfaction

Despite independent evidence that reminiscing about positive events has positive emotional benefits, and that laughter plays a role in seemingly successful relationships, there is a lack of empirical research examining how reminiscing about laughter might influence relationship well being. Specifically, the current study assessed whether reminiscing about shared laughter would increase relationship satisfaction among romantic couples. Fifty-two couples were randomly assigned to one of four reminiscing conditions and completed pre- and post-manipulation assessments of relationship satisfaction. As predicted, couples who reminisced about events involving shared laugher reported higher relationship satisfaction at the post-manipulation satisfaction assessment as compared to couples in the three control conditions. The effect was not attributed to positive mood induction as mood scores across groups were similar. Results show preliminary support for the notion that reminiscing about laughter may have a more potent influence on relationship well being than reminiscing about other positive events.

Money: a therapeutic tool for couples therapy

This article addresses the therapeutic importance of discussing money at every stage of a couple's relationship, both as a concrete reality and as a metaphor for security, adequacy, competence, commitment, acceptance, and acknowledgment in a relationship. I will present a developmental schema looking at financial issues that couples confront at various stages in the adult life cycle and how these affect and reflect relationship problems. The article also presents a money questionnaire as a useful tool for exploring family-of-origin financial history, affect, and behavior.     

Fusion or Internalized Homophobia? A Pilot Study of Bowen's Differentiation of Self Hypothesis With Lesbian Couples

Bowen, using the concept of differentiation, hypothesized that the way individuals learn to deal with their relationships with families of origin will influence the way they manage their relationships with their partners. This study surveyed a group of 53 lesbian couples on differentiation of self, internalized homophobia, and relationship satisfaction. We found that lesbian couples were not significantly different in their level of differentiation than random pairs. We also found that there was a positive relationship between differentiation of self and relationship satisfaction and that when considered together, internalized homophobia had the more significant connection to relationship satisfaction than did differentiation of self Implications for therapy are drawn from these findings.     

How Adolescent Children of African Jamaican Immigrants Living in Canada Perceive and Negotiate their Roles within a Matrifocal Family

This research project examined the adolescent/young adult-parent relationships of African Jamaican immigrants currently living in Canada. Specifically, we focused on the transmission of cultural values and beliefs within these relationships and how the adolescents navigated and negotiated potential changes in these values because of their acculturative experiences. An examination of various mundane family/cultural practices provided insight into perceived transmission attempts by parents and the adolescent/young adult interpretation of these attempts. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with adolescent/young adult members of African Jamaican immigrant families living in Canada. Using Grounded Theory methodology (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), several themes emerged during the analysis of the interviews—the most significant being the issue of matrifocality within the African Jamaican family. Issues of respect and adolescent agency are also discussed as they related to the manner in which the adolescent/young adult attempted to negotiate various roles within the family.     

Everything Here is Fine: Protective Buffering by Military Spouses During a Deployment

To minimize potential distractions for deployed military service members (SMs), some nondeployed romantic partners have reported engaging in protective buffering, or intentionally withholding information or concerns to protect their deployed partner. This study assessed the associations of protective buffering and psychological distress and marital satisfaction for military couples during and after deployment. Additionally, the study explored whether protective buffering was related to SM reports of being distracted during deployment by family matters. A total of 54 couples provided data before, during, and after an Army deployment. In multilevel models, higher protective buffering by partners was associated with higher psychological distress and lower marital satisfaction for both SMs and partners during, but not after, deployment. Additionally, partners reported frequent use of protective buffering during deployment; however, protective buffering was not significantly correlated with family related distraction for SMs during deployment. Limitations and implications of these findings are discussed.     

They May Disapprove,but I Still Love You: Attachment Behaviors Moderate the Effect of Social Disapproval on Marital Relationship Quality

The degree of approval for a relationship from one’s social network has been shown to predict relationship outcomes. Additional research has shown that attachment can buffer the negative effects of various factors (e.g., depression) on relationships. Using an actor–partner interdependence model in an SEM framework, we research the effects of disapproval from parents and friends for one’s relationship on marital relationship quality for self and partner in a sample of 858 married couples. We also examine whether each spouse’s attachment behaviors can moderate these effects. Results indicated that one’s own attachment behaviors moderate the effects of their own parents’ and friends’ disapproval on their self-reported relationship quality for both men and women. Partner’s attachment behaviors moderate own friend’s disapproval on self-reported relationship quality for men and women; additionally, the main effect of partner’s friends’ and parents’ disapproval became nonsignificant with that test. The findings provide evidence that attachment behaviors of both partners play a role in buffering the negative effects of the social network disapproval on relationship outcomes. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Relationship quality and accuracy of detecting a romantic partner's fear of being single

How attuned are romantic partners to each other’s fear of being single, and is accuracy associated with relationship quality? In this study, 104 couples reported their fear of being single, perceptions of their partner’s fear of being single, and relationship quality. Partners had significant accuracy when judging fear of being single, but a tendency toward overestimation. Partners also were not systematically similar and did not project their own fears onto partners. Tracking accuracy was positively associated with some aspects of the perceiver’s relationship quality, but not with the target’s relationship quality. Mean-level bias was largely unassociated with relationship quality for the perceiver or target, except for lower investment from the target when the perceiver over-estimated their fear of being single.     

Narrating the other: Self-other agreement of affective qualities and manifest events among personal life stories and the vicarious life stories provided by informants

Life stories are psychosocial constructions of one’s past, present, and future. Vicarious stories are mental representations of others’ life stories. Across two studies, we examined self-other agreement among features of participants’ personal and vicarious stories and whether agreement corresponded with relationship closeness. Agreement was quantified via the affective qualities and manifest events of key scenes. Targets’ personal and informants’ vicarious stories demonstrated agreement in tone, but not in redemption or contamination (Study 1). The manifest events within informants’ vicarious scenes corresponded with participants’ personal life stories 25% of the time, and this agreement increased with greater relationship closeness (Study 2). Our findings support the notion that an understanding of the important events in someone’s life may facilitate interpersonal closeness.     

Prevention of marital instability and distress. Results of an 11-year longitudinal follow-up study

Divorce and destructive couple conflict are major risk factors for many forms of dysfunction and psychopathology in the family. Couple relationship education has been offered in an attempt to reduce those risks and enhance couple outcomes. The current effectiveness study had two aims: to assess (a) the long-term effects of relationship education and (b) the ability of partners to remember the skills typically taught during the communication skills training. One hundred and one couples from two studies, in which the effectiveness of the EPL (Ein Partnerschaftliches Lernprogramm für Paare [A Learning Program for Married Couples]) was investigated, were followed-up 11 years after the training. In the first study, EPL-takers had a significantly lower divorce and separation rate (27.5%) than non-EPL-takers (52.6%). This finding was replicated in a second study, showing a 20% dissolution rate in EPL-takers. For those couples still together, the rate of happy relationships was 80% at the eleven-year follow-up - thus, there is optimism for longer married couples who are willing to focus on improving their relationships. Only about 55% of the partners could remember at least one speaker skill whereas 70% remembered at least one listening skill taught during EPL. Consequences for prevention programs in the couple domain are discussed.