In this doctoral thesis, a culturally-sensitive couple therapy model was developed and empirically investigated. In particular, a Western-based couple therapy, Emotionally-Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), was modified to enhance the cultural relevancy of this model to the Japanese population. An extensive literature review was conducted to examine the status of psychotherapy and couple research in Japan, and cultural differences between Western and Japanese couples, with a particular emphasis on important couple variables, including emotional expression, communication, conflict resolution, and attachment. Study objectives included an empirical investigation into cultural differences on key relationship variables of trust, attachment, communication, and conflict resolution, and the use of these findings to guide adaptations of EFT to enhance cultural relevance, and an exploration of the adapted EFT model with three Japanese couples. This study is significant in that it is the first to empirically evaluate the cross-cultural validity of EFT. This dissertation consists of two studies that have been combined in one article for the purpose of publishing the document in a Japanese journal. Both studies were combined in one article for various reasons. First, study one findings are integral to the development of the culturally-sensitive EFT model that is empirically investigated in the second study. Second, the article included in this dissertation will be translated and prepared for publication in a Japanese journal. Including both studies in one article is important given the lack of familiarity in the Japanese research community about key relationship variables, and particularly their applicability to a couple therapy system (i.e., EFT), and their use to measure change in a couple therapy outcome study.

Healthy romantic relationships are associated with a multitude of positive physical and mental health outcomes. Conversely, low relationship quality and relationship dissolution are associated with risk for poor health outcomes. Accordingly, numerous studies investigate ways to preserve healthy relationships through the use of preventative relationship education interventions, many of which improve relationship outcomes. However, evidence for the efficacy and effectiveness of these interventions is somewhat mixed, and promising interventions often fail to reach at-risk populations due to high participant burden. There is a movement within clinical psychology to create easily accessible, targeted therapy protocols in order to increase the broad availability of these evidence-based interventions. The current study aimed to replicate and extend the Marriage Hack (MH), a brief, evidence-based preventative relationship intervention designed to stabilize the natural decline in relationship quality over time. This study addressed four specific aims designed to: 1) examine the efficacy of the MH intervention using an abbreviated protocol; 2) extend the original MH intervention by investigating theory-based mechanisms of change and assessing individual health outcomes; 3) explore how theory-based mechanisms change over time; and, 4) evaluate the relationship between within-person and between-person variance in process variables and outcome measures. Seventy-eight (N = 78) couples were randomized to the 4-week MH protocol (n = 41) or control condition (n = 37). Results demonstrated men in the intervention group exhibited 1) greater improvements in relationship satisfaction and 2) decreases in both anxiety and depression compared to men in the control group. This study did not replicate the findings of the original MH for additional outcome variables and process variables for men or women. No support was found for mediating effects of additional theory-based mechanisms of change on outcome measures. However, exploratory intensive longitudinal analyses revealed noteworthy relationships between within-person and between-person variance in process variables and treatment outcomes. Research recommendations to further improve preventative relationship interventions and clinical implications of the current findings are discussed.

Societal pressures have led to social and legal policy changes that have resulted in fertility clinics increasingly permitting lesbians access to their services. Therefore, lesbian women are able to conceive their children and create their families in ways that historically were not available to them. While some research has been conducted examining the needs, experiences, and issues faced by lesbian-led families in general, there is a dearth of research that exclusively explores lesbian couples who conceived their children through the use of anonymous donor insemination. The qualitative method that guided this research was interpretive interactionism. Interviews were conducted with 10 couples who self-identified as lesbian, chose to have their children while in their lesbian relationships, and conceived their children through the use of anonymous donor insemination. Analysis of the transcripts revealed that four themes shaped, constructed, represented, and gave meaning to these unique family configurations. These four themes are (a) conception options of two women, (b) two women parenting, (c) anonymous donors/not fathers, and (d) families with lesbian mothers. These themes are elaborated in terms of their implications for lesbian-led families, clinical practice, and future research. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The primary goal of the present research was to clarify the role of marriage in the developmental course of internalizing symptoms (i.e., depression and anxiety). Aims were pursued in a community sample of 103 couples assessed five times over the first seven years of marriage, and results are presented in two separate parts. Although marital discord has been linked to both depression and anxiety, our understanding of how marriage contributes to the development of internalizing symptoms is limited in scope and lacking specificity. First, it is unclear whether the marital relationship contributes to the broad dimension of internalizing symptoms as opposed to specific diagnoses. Second, it is unclear how the marital relationship contributes to internalizing symptoms: through global marital dissatisfaction or through specific relationship processes (and which processes). The purpose of the research presented in Part 1 was to address these two issues. Further, marital discord is rarely incorporated into broader etiological frameworks of psychopathology (e.g., a diathesis-stress framework). The purpose of research presented in Part 2 was to develop and test a novel conceptual framework clarifying how specific marital processes (i.e., conflict management, partner support, emotional intimacy, and power and control), neuroticism, and stress work together to impact the development of internalizing symptoms over time. Results suggest that neuroticism contributes to the development of internalizing symptoms primarily through non-marital stress and an imbalance of power and control in one's marriage for husbands and through greater emotional disengagement for wives. Whereas stress originating outside of the marriage was more critical to the mental health of men, the marital relationship played a more central role for women. Marital processes remain significant predictors of internalizing symptoms when controlling for other well-established risk factors, demonstrating the need to routinely consider marital factors in etiological models of individual psychopathology. Further, results allow for the identification of specific clinical targets that can be prioritized in interventions aimed at preventing internalizing disorders. Specific recommendations for adapting marital preparation programs to prevent individual psychopathology are discussed.

While a great deal of research has been completed on the relationship between biological sex and infidelity, no research currently exists that examines the relationship between masculine gender norms and infidelity. In this study, 202 men and 486 women were recruited from a Midwestern university, the surrounding community, and nationallyon line. Their Conformity to Masculine Norms (CMNI) scores were compared to threeinfidelity measures: a modified version of the Attitudes Toward Marital Exclusivity Scale(ATME), the Justification for Extramarital Infidelity Questionnaire (JEIQ) sexual justifications subscale, and the JEIQ emotional intimacy justifications subscale. Participants' CMNI total score was hypothesized to be correlated with ATME total scores, JEIQ sexual justification, and JEIQ emotional intimacy justification scores. Further, scores on four CMNI subscales ("risk taking", "dominance", "playboy", and "pursuit of status") were hypothesized to predict ATME total scores, as well as JEIQ sexual and emotional intimacy justification subscales scores for both men and women. Preliminary analysis identified significant variance between men's and women's responses to the ATME and JEIQ sexual intimacy subscales. Results were therefore presented for both men and women separately. Men's, but not women's, CMNI total scores were found to be correlated with their ATME total and JEIQ sexual scores. Both men's and women's scores on identified CMNI subscales scores were found to predict ATME, JEIQ sexual, and JEIQ emotional scores. For men, only "playboy" scores were related to the variance these scores. For women, "playboy" was associated with variance in ATME scores, both "risk-taking" and "playboy" were associated with variance in JEIQ sexual scores, and both "playboy" and "pursuit of status" were associated with variance inJEIQ emotional scores. From these results, utility of overall conformity to masculine in understanding men's attitudes about infidelity is established. Additionally, masculine nonrelational sexuality norms are found to be useful in understanding attitudes and approval of sex based infidelity.

We investigated spouses’ ability to engage in a positive interaction following relationship conflict, a process that involves skills in recovering from distress and reconnecting with one’s partner. The quality of positive interactions was hypothesized to vary as a function of attachment and have implications for marital satisfaction. Newlywed couples discussed a conflict in their relationship followed by a discussion of positive aspects of their relationship. We hypothesized and found that greater attachment avoidance in husbands predicted less positive behavior in both partners during the positive interaction. Additionally, wives’ positive behavior predicted both partners’ relationship satisfaction, even above and beyond caregiving and careseeking behavior during the conflict. The findings point to the importance of examining not only how couples discuss conflicts, but also how they behave in the aftermath of those discussions.

Adverse and traumatic childhood experiences (e.g., ACEs) are inversely linked to negative outcomes in adulthood, including lower couple relationship functioning. Clinical research and practice have incorporated implications of ACEs, however much less consideration of ACEs has been given in community-based couple relationship education (CRE). This study explores dyadic effects of ACEs and mindfulness, a potential resilience factor and modifiable skill, on couple relationship quality in a diverse sample of CRE study participants before program start. Results indicate actor and partner effects for ACEs and mindfulness on relationship quality. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

This study is a revision of the Marital Inventories so that both self-perception and perception of other data can be collected. The revised inventory, titled the Couples Inventories, was administered to a population of 183 couples comprised mainly of university students from communities across the United States. From the collected data, principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to analyze the items addressing couple communication . This study analyzed data from self-perception and perception of other, as well as including the variables of the respondent's age and gender as a test for structural equivalence. As a test of reliability Theta, a special case of Cronbach Alpha, was calculated for the identified factors. The major findings of this study were: (a) perception of other is critical to the understanding of relationship communication; (b) structural equivalence enables researchers to identify those items that have utility for heterosexual couples at various ages; (c) openness, understanding, problem solving, and conflict management are crucial dimensions of communication; (d) openness is comprised of at least two dimensions; namely, general openness and emotional openness; and (e) understanding is unidimensional as opposed to a continuum ranging from understanding to misunderstanding.

Much of the literature on lesbian relationships links the positive feminine relational trait (intimacy or communion) with problems of psychological merger (Burch, 1982, 1985; Decker, 1984; Elise, 1986; Krestan and Bepko, 1980). Karpel (1976), describes psychological merger as a person's "state of ernbeddedness in and undifferentiation within, the relational context" (p. 67) . This study explores the femininity/masculinity sex role traits as they relate to psychological merger in lesbian couples. Thirty-eight lesbian couples were recruited through friendship and acquaintance networks, newsletter announcements and direct solicitation of members of the Portland Lesbian Community Project (LCP). Couples had to have been living together in a primary relationship for one year or longer in order to qualify for the study.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with distress in and dissolution of romantic relationships. BPD is a relational disorder. The complex interaction between BPD and romantic relationships continues to warrant further attention, as decreased BPD symptoms are associated with increased relational effectiveness. The current study was one of the first qualitative studies that used dyadic data to examine the experience and impact of BPD on couples' relationships. Semi-structured conjoint interviews were conducted with couples with a partner with BPD (N = 10) using interpretative phenomenology. This study provides a rich understanding of the experiences of couples with BPD by exploring not only how BPD impacts couples' romantic relationships, but how couples cope with BPD. Although BPD was experienced as a relational stressor, couples utilized resources to buffer against the impact of BPD in their relationship. Three superordinate themes emerged from the data that illustrate the couple experience of navigating BPD: (a) the individual lived experience of BPD, (b) the shared experience of BPD as a relational stressor, and (c) adaptive dyadic coping in the context of BPD. Dyadic coping and shared externalization emerged as key factors in adaptive couple functioning in the context of BPD. The lived experiences of these couples provide therapists and other couples with an increased understanding of the resources and skills that support successful dyadic coping with BPD. / Master of Science / Borderline personality disorder (BPD) imposes significant stress on romantic relationships. BPD is associated with increased distress in and dissolution of romantic relationships. However, individuals in recovery from BPD report high relationship satisfaction. Decreased BPD symptoms are associated with increased relational effectiveness, but it is less clear whether reducing BPD symptoms leads to greater relational effectiveness or if relational effectiveness reduces symptoms of BPD. To better understand the complex relationship between BPD and romantic relationships, conjoint interviews were conducted with couples who were navigating the management of BPD. Ten semi-structured conjoint interviews were analyzed using interpretative phenomenology. Three themes emerged from the data that illustrate the couple experience of navigating BPD: (a) the individual lived experience of BPD, (b) the shared experience of BPD as a relational stressor, and (c) adaptive dyadic coping in the context of BPD. Dyadic coping and shared externalization emerged as key factors in adaptive couple functioning in the context of BPD. Couples navigating BPD benefit from many of the same couple coping strategies that other couples utilize to manage common stressors in life.