Couple Therapy with Veterans: Early Improvements and Predictors of Early Dropout

Family services within Veterans Affairs Medical Centers fulfill an important role in addressing relationship distress among Veterans, which is highly prevalent and comorbid with psychopathology. However, even for evidence‐based couple therapies, effectiveness is weaker compared to controlled studies, maybe because many Veteran couples drop out early and do not reach the “active” treatment stage after the 3–4 session assessment. In order to improve outcomes, it is critical to identify couples at high risk for early dropout, and understand whether couples may benefit from the assessment as an intervention. The current study examined (a) demographics, treatment delivery mode, relationship satisfaction, and psychological symptoms as predictors of dropout during and immediately following the assessment phase, and (b) changes in relationship satisfaction during assessment. 174 couples completed questionnaires during routine intake procedures. The main analyses focused on 140 male Veterans and their female civilian partners; 36.43% dropped out during the assessment phase and 24.74% of the remaining couples immediately following the first treatment session. More severe depressive symptoms in non‐Veteran partners were associated with dropout during assessment. Relationship satisfaction improved significantly during the assessment phase for couples who did not drop out, with larger gains for non‐Veteran partners. No demographics or treatment delivery mode were associated with dropout. Although more research is needed on engaging couples at risk for early dropout and maximizing early benefits, the findings suggest that clinicians should attend to the civilian partner's and Veteran's depressive symptoms at intake and consider the assessment part of active treatment.     

Daily Events for Clinical Couples: Examining Therapy Interventions,Positive Events,Arguments, and Exercise in the Beginning Stage of Therapy

This study examined the daily association of several events within the beginning phase of couple therapy. Events examined were as follows: trying something from therapy, an argument, a positive event, and physical exercise. Participants were 33 couples in a treatment‐as‐usual setting who completed the Daily Diary of Events in Couple Therapy (DDECT). A dyadic multilevel model was used to explore the daily associations between predictor and outcome variables. Results showed when male partners tried something from therapy at rates greater than the average their female partners reported a more positive relationship while when female partners tried something from therapy at rates greater than the average it contributed to a more negative relationship. In addition, results showed that clients in couple therapy rarely try things from therapy on a daily basis. Finally, relative to other predictors trying something from therapy had a smaller, but significant relationship with outcomes.     

Studying Stepfamilies: Four Eras of Family Scholarship

Historically, there have always been stepfamilies, but until the early 1970s, they remained largely unnoticed by social scientists. Research interest in stepfamilies followed shortly after divorce became the primary precursor to stepfamily formation. Because stepfamilies are structurally diverse and much more complex than nuclear families, they have created considerable challenges for both researchers and clinicians. This article examines four eras of stepfamily scholarship, tracing the development of research questions, study designs and methods, and conceptual frameworks from the mid‐1970s to the present and drawing implications for the current state of the field.     

Specificity of the Association between Marital Discord and Longitudinal Changes in Symptoms of Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder in the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing

This longitudinal study was conducted to evaluate actor and partner effects of marital discord on changes in symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in a large population sample of Irish adults (N = 1,445 couples), adjusting for the potential confounds of quality of other social relationships and other psychopathology symptoms. The Actor–Partner Interdependence Model was used to examine actor and partner effects of marital discord on changes in symptoms of depression and GAD at a 2‐year follow‐up. Additional models examined these associations adjusting for family and friend discord and symptoms of the other type of psychopathology (depressive or GAD symptoms). Actor effects of marital discord on depressive and anxiety symptoms were greater for men than for women. There were significant, positive actor effects of marital discord on depressive symptoms for husbands and wives, which remained significant when adjusting for family and friend discord and GAD symptoms. There were significant, positive actor effects of marital discord on GAD symptoms for husbands, which remained significant when adjusting for family and friend discord and depressive symptoms. Results demonstrate that longitudinal associations between marital discord and depressive symptoms (for wives and husbands) and GAD symptoms (for husbands) are incremental to other rival explanations (family and friend discord and the other set of symptoms). Findings provide evidence for a potential causal association leading from marital discord to symptoms of depression and GAD.     

聋生“是……的”句的句法意识

聋生在书面语语法学习中遇到极大困难。以"是……的"句为实验材料,使用移动窗口式自步速逐词句子阅读任务进行3项实验研究发现,和既懂手语又懂口语的(听力损失不高于70 d B的)中轻度聋生相比,(听力损失高于70 d B的)重度聋生对句尾助词"的"的句法信息加工尤其困难,他们对"是……的"句的句法意识较弱。本研究对重度聋生的书面语语法教学训练具有重要的心理学指导意义。     

L'accord grammatical de genre dans la dysphasie de développement

Various studies report that children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have important difficulties in using grammatical morphemes expressing gender, number or tense but none of these studies let us determine whether agreement perception is impaired. To answer this question, 18 children with SLI and 18 control children without language impairment participated in two tasks testing production and perception of French gender agreement between determiner and noun. The results showed that (i) only children with SLI produced gender errors or determiner omissions whereas (ii) both groups were sensitive to agreement violations: they were slower and made more errors to categorize disagreeing determiner phrases (*the_[masc] banana_[fem]).     

Inférences émotionnelles et compréhension de textes narratifs : lorsque la perspective du lecteur diverge de celle du protagoniste

This study deals with the emotional inferences readers generate during the reading of narrative texts. The objective was to show that the accessibility of the representation of the emotional state of the protagonist depends on the reader's and the protagonist's knowledge of the situation. In the texts we used, the reader and the protagonist either shared the same amount of knowledge of the situation, or the protagonist was described as being ignorant of relevant situational information. The main result indicated that, in the presence of a difference between the protagonist and the reader, regarding their situational knowledge, the accessibility of the representation of the protagonist's emotion slowed down. In other words, the protagonist's emotion was more accessible when it was coherent with the situational knowledge of both the reader and the protagonist.