Thesis advisor: Bernard O'Brien / This study Investigated factors underlying marital stability in twelve working class couples who had been married at least twenty years, and whose youngest child was eighteen or older. A qualitative approach was used to elucidate the meaning of each individual's experience of marriage, with a focus on gender differences. Marriage was conceptualized developmentally in three phases: 1) pre-child rearing; 2) child rearing; and 3) post-child rearing. A semi-structured interview was used to elicit information regarding initial attraction, expectations, roles, communication, problem-solving, handling interpersonal differences, child rearing, intimacy, sexuality, relationship variables (understanding, sensitivity, respect, trust) and equity with regard to each phase. The influence of external factors (finances, ethnicity, culture), religion, and participants' families of origin on the marital relationship were discussed as well. Nine salient themes emerged from the data: initial attraction, expectations, marital behavior (including child rearing), relatedness, values, finances, influence of family of origin, marital satisfaction, and change over time. Relatedness was the core category, encompassing eight other themes: positive regard for the relationship, intimacy, relationship variables (understanding, sensitivity, respect, trust), communication, style of handling interpersonal differences, marital conflict, equity, and sexuality. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1993. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Education.

Thesis advisor: Bernard O'Brien / This study investigated factors which influenced stable marriages among twelve Mexican American, working class, Catholic couples from central Texas who had been married at least twenty years, spoke English, and whose youngest child was a minimum of 18 years of age. Each participant was interviewed separately in a retrospective, semi-structured interview that covered selected factors from three different marital stages: 1) initial attraction, early marriage and birth of first child, 2) child-rearing years, and 3) post child-rearing years. The influences of culture, religion, values, finances, and the family of origin were explored to determine their impact on marital stability. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1994. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Education.

Thesis advisor: Bernard O'Brien / This study investigated factors associated with stable marriages among twelve African-American, working-class couples who had been married for a minimum of twenty years, with children who were at least 18 years of age. The researcher conducted an in-depth interview with each spouse separately, and explored aspects of three different stages of their marriages: the early years, child rearing years, and post-child rearing years. Factors that were examined to determine their impact on marital stability included relationship variables, external factors and the influence of respondents' parents' marriages on their relationships. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1993. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Education.

The purpose of this research was to identify significant marital themes in 12 upper-middle class Jewish couples married a minimum of 20 years, and whose children were at least 18 years old. Each of the men in the sample possessed a college degree. Six women attended college and the remaining six had earned a high school diploma. The researcher interviewed each spouse separately concerning three periods in his/her marriage: the beginning years, the child rearing years, and the years after the children left home. The researcher explored the influence of a number of variables on the marriage: the couple's relationship, external factors, and styles of relating. Developmental transitions and crises experienced by the couple as well as the influence of biological, psychological, and social factors also were evaluated. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1993. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Education.

Thesis advisor: Bernard A. O'Brien / This study investigated factors associated with stable relationships among twelve gay male couples who had been together for a minimum of fifteen years and had not reared children together. Each partner of the participating couples was interviewed separately in a semi-structured retrospective interview that assessed the impact of selected factors during the beginning phase (the first 5 years), the middle phase (years 5-10), and the most recent phase (beyond 10 years) of the relationship. The interpersonal dynamics between the partners and the influences of several sociocultural factors were explored. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1996. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling Psychology.

Thesis advisor: Bernard O'Brien / The purpose of this study was to investigate variables contributing to stability in the long-term marriages of members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). A qualitative approach was used to facilitate understanding of the dynamic and complex nature of a long-term marriage. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 Quaker couples from Eastern Massachusetts. Participants were volunteers who had been married for at least 20 years, and whose youngest child was at least 18 years old. In addition, participants had been members of the Religious Society of Friends or attenders at Quaker meeting for at least 20 years. The interviews addressed a range of factors from the early years of marriage, middle years, and the current period. Additional questions were added concerning the impact of Quakerism on the individual and the marriage. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1998. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental Psychology, and Research Methods.

Thesis advisor: Bernard O'Brien / This study investigated factors which influenced the stability of long-term relationships among twelve lesbian couples who had been together for at least fifteen years and reared children. A retrospective, semi-structured interview was used and each participant was interviewed separately. Themes related to relationship stability were identified prior to the interview and operationalized through the interview questions. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1996. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental Psychology, and Research Methods.

Research into the lived experience of dementia, which has tended to focus on people with dementia and their spouses (carers) separately, has identified that that spousal relationships play a crucial role in this experience. However, there is a lack of knowledge as to how the dyadic interactions in spousal relationships affect the experience of dementia for couples. This thesis aimed to address this gap by exploring how couples in which one partner had mild dementia described the impact of dementia and their attempts to cope with it. It was a qualitative study which followed the theoretical and methodological stance of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Face to face semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve couples, with each partner interviewed separately. Results illustrated that couples’ reported their experience as a chronological process and were motivated to get on with their lives by maintaining a sense of normality. This study contributed to the literature by revealing how both partners experienced and coped with dementia, and the impact that their actions had on their spouse. Couples maintained normality through developing positive cognitions, keeping active, lessening the load and direct discussion and support. It was clear that couples’ (particularly carers’) awareness of dementia and its implications, combined with their knowledge of their spouse, affected how they experienced and coped with dementia. It was also clear that couples had different expectations about what constituted an acceptable level of communication, which thereby affected choice of coping strategy. The idea of a Relationship Continuum as a way to consider the impact of pre-morbid relationship styles on couples’ responses to dementia was explored. Results were discussed in terms of existing knowledge and ways in which this thesis has added to the literature were highlighted. Professional and practice implications, limitations and future research were discussed.

What ways of being and knowing constitute the experience of healthy relational life? Ontologically, what takes place in the experience of meeting a loved one, face to face? What is ???good communication??? in an intimate relationship? What does commitment enable in relational life, and what constitutes healthy dedication in marriages? This thesis addresses the above questions through a conceptual analysis of the dual nature of social life: identity-based, self-reifying, object-focused, atomised and oppositional, and dialogical, relational and present. It does so with the help of qualitatively analysed interviews of respondents talking about their experiences of committed intimate relationships. The first part of this thesis discovers that current social theory links the increased fragility of intimate relationships to the individualisation of social experience, and the rise of discourses that encourage reflexivity and personal responsibility. I discuss specific funding strategies the Australian Federal Government employs in seeking to manage the risk of marriage breakdown in the community. I argue that while a complex mix of rational-instrumental reasoning, the neo-liberal ethos of self-enterprise and some Christian norms of family life underlie much policy, the actual practice of marriage education in Australia has a community basis, and has much potential for real relationships. I offer a critique of risk-preventative discourses in marriage pedagogy, and show that the key terms used by clinical researchers draw on the same methodological individualism as the economic model of relational life. I argue that often, social theorists also reduce relationships to dyads of competing individuals exchanging themselves as goods, or bargaining for the best deal while using their investments as threat points. I suggest that the identity struggles that ensue from such alienated relations in intimate lives can be understood through the Hegelian binary oppositional model, and also, through some psychoanalytical theory on differentiation. This thesis suggests that on examination of couples??? relationships, we find a different ontological structure in relationality. Relationships have the potential to transcend their total, additive, atomised form and be experienced as wholes. Couples teach us that love is not just self-directed action; that choice can burden, but responsibility to what is present can be freeing; and that relational ???success??? is more complex than simply staying together for life.

The primary objective of this investigation was to offer a marriage enrichment workshop enabling the participants to increase their communication and problem solving skills, and the prevention of future marital distress through an educational experience. Marital communication and marital adjustment scores were obtained from an experimental group consisting of 16 married Indian couples living in the United States who attended a marriage enrichment workshop. These scores were compared with those scores derived from 16 married Indian couples living in the United States who participated in a marriage enrichment workshop at a later date. Nineteen hypotheses were generated which assumed that couples participating in a marriage enrichment workshop would experience a significant increase in their level of marital communication and marital adjustment. The five-session workshop was conducted on five consecutive Saturdays, the duration of each session being three hours. The format for the workshop included the exercises designed by Hendrix (1988) to improve communication skills and practice new relationship skills. The importance of creating a more loving and supportive relationship was emphasized in the workshop. The instruments used to study the dependent variables were the Marital Communication Inventory and the Marital Adjustment Test. The statistical treatment applied was Analysis Of Variance with repeated measures. Subjects were tested on the first day of the workshop, the last day of the workshop, and finally five weeks after the marriage enrichment workshop. The results indicated that the marriage enrichment workshop had moderately significant positive effect on marital communication and marital adjustment. The level of communication and adjustment showed consistent statistically significant increase over time (five week delay) after the workshop. In addition, the results established positive correlation between marital communication and marital adjustment. Finally, the content of the workshop designed by Hendrix (1988) was much appreciated by all participants and they identified remarkable similarity between the the Western thought and the Eastern culture. / Graduation date: 1997