A fundamental purpose of this study was to provide marriage preparation providers with counselors perceptions of potential marital problem areas. A structured questionnaire was sent to LDS counselors, defined as members of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists (AMCAP). These LDS counselors rated 29 problem areas that LDS couples, (members members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), might encounter in a first marriage or remarriage. Results (N=231) were analyzed in an attempt to determine the most frequent, most damaging and most difficult problems to deal with in LDS first marriages and remarriages.Findings suggest that "communication", "sex", "unrealistic expectations of marriage or spouse", "money management" and "power struggles" were all identified as most frequent and most damaging problems/complaints first time LDS marriages might encounter. Problems with "previous marriage", "serious individual problems", "children", "power struggles", "unrealistic expectations of marriage or spouse", "communication" and "money management/finances" were identified as most frequent and damaging to LDS remarital couples.For both LDS first marriages and remarriages, problems with "power struggles" were identified as frequent and damaging, however, this topic is not commonly addressed in marriage preparation programs. These findings suggest that issues of power should be included as an area of focus in marriage preparation programs.

Married couples aged 55-98 were surveyed regarding their perceptions of family-of-origin distress, their affective communication and problem solving communication skills, and their emotional intimacy. Two 2-way ANOVAs were performed with husbands' (model 1) and wives' (model 2) emotional intimacy scores as dependent measures and family-of-origin distress scores as the independent measures. Then both models were re-analyzed with affective communication and problem solving communication entered as co-variates. Results suggested that for both husbands and wives, emotional intimacy was affected by family-of-origin distress. Additionally, intimacy was affected by the distress in their spouses' family-of-origin in both models. Post-hoc analyses suggested that as long as at least one member of the couple reports low family-of-origin distress, intimacy does not suffer for either spouse. Taking communication variables into account rendered the effects of family-of-origin distress non-significant in both models. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for psychoanalytic, systemic, and developmental theory.

This study examined the influence of parental divorce on the attitudes of young adult members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) toward marriage and family life. A sample of 180 students from three universities completed self-report questionnaires measuring various attitudes toward aspects of marriage and family life. The results indicated that parental divorce alone was not a significant predictor (p.≤.05) of young adults' attitudes toward marriage and family life. The one difference found was that young adults' coming from divorced families-of-origin were less attracted to the idea of commitment and sacrifice involved in a marriage than those coming from intact families-of-origin. Limitations, implications for future research and clinical implications were also discussed.

Prior research has established that a portion of depressive symptoms in adolescents is predicted by parenting behaviors. The purpose of this study was to identify the moderating role of hope on the relationship between two parenting variables (warmth and psychological control) and adolescent depressive symptoms. Participants included 459 adolescents ages 13 to 14 years and their families from waves 3 and 4 of the Flourishing Families Project. Path analysis was utilized to answer the proposed hypotheses and research questions. Multiple group analysis was utilized to determine if results were different for boys and girls. Significant results indicated that in low-hope girls, depressive symptoms increased as maternal warmth increased but decreased as paternal warmth increased. Mother’s psychological control had a minimal effect on child’s depressive symptoms in high-hope children. Father’s psychological control predicted an increase in depressive symptoms in high-hope children. Findings suggest that father’s warmth is particularly important for low-hope girls, maternal warmth may have inadvertent negative effects among low-hope girls, and paternal psychological control is of notable concern for high-hope children. These parenting behaviors as well as hope and depressive symptoms should be assessed for and addressed in clinical practice with parents and adolescent children.

Previous research has demonstrated that cooperation and support between parents, called the parental alliance, is an important predictor of parent and child well-being. Consequently, it is important to understand what factors promote the formation of a strong parental alliance. Because of research on the impact of attachment security on individuals' abilities to depend and rely on others and to appropriately manage conflict, partner attachment is a potential predictor of the parental alliance, with insecure attachment negatively weakening the parental alliance. This study analyzed data from 321 couples to examine the relationship between partner attachment and the parental alliance. Using the Actor Partner Interdependence Model, results indicated that attachment was significantly associated with parental alliance scores for both husbands and wives; specifically, higher anxious attachment for wives and for husbands significantly predicted decreased parental cooperation and increased triangulation and conflict. Likewise, avoidant attachment for wives and for husbands was significantly predictive of decreased cooperation and increased triangulation and conflict. These findings point to the utility of marital therapy focusing on increasing attachment as a way to strengthen parental attachment.

Paternal depression is an understudied topic and research connecting it to maternal gatekeeping is still in its infancy. Research has found that the marriage relationship can be associated with both depression and maternal gatekeeping. This study focuses on how these three areas are related. A subsample of the CREATE project was used including 216 couples, or 432 married parents. Two separate SEM mediational models were tested to examine father depression as a predictor of maternal gatekeeping, with marital instability as the mediator in one model and partner connectedness as the mediator in the other model. Both parent reports were used for maternal gatekeeping, marital instability, and partner connectedness. According to results, no direct association between father depression and maternal gatekeeping was found. Marital instability did not act as an effective mediator between father depression and maternal gatekeeping. However, mother reports of partner connectedness did have significant indirect effects on father depression and maternal gatekeeping. Implications suggest that therapists and researchers should examine father depression from a more wholistic family perspective. Future research should include longitudinal analyses to better understand the nature of the relationship between father depression and maternal gatekeeping.

Social withdrawal is often associated with a number of indices of adjustment and maladjustment, but little research exists that attempts to uncover potential protective factors. This study longitudinally examined the moderating role of parent extraversion and parent warmth on the association between two types of social withdrawal (shyness and unsociability) and later indices of adjustment and maladjustment. Participants were 463 families from the flourishing families project. Results showed no longitudinal associations between social withdrawal and later indices of adjustment or maladjustment. However, when parent extraversion was added as a moderator, shyness was positively associated with prosocial behavior for those with introverted parents, and positively associated with shame for those with highly extraverted parents. Implications are discussed.

The therapeutic alliance, a construct representing agreement and collaboration on therapy goals, therapy tasks, and the emotional bond between client(s) and therapist, is a robust predictor of therapy outcomes in individual, couple, and family therapy. One way to track the therapeutic alliance is through ruptures and repairs. Ruptures are breaks, tensions, or tears in the therapeutic alliance. Ruptures and repairs influence the therapeutic alliance and consequently therapeutic outcomes. Currently, there is a lack of research addressing ruptures and repairs in couple therapy. The first step in researching alliance ruptures is to have a reliable way to assess alliance ruptures. This study will describe the development of the Coding Rupture Indicators in Couples Therapy (CRICT). The CRICT is an observational coding scheme that measures ruptures in couple therapy. The CRICT was developed through collaboration with researchers in marriage and family therapy, creation of items, adaptation of items from established coding schemes from individual therapy, and input and feedback as the CRICT was used and tested by undergraduates in a coding class. This paper will review foundational research of ruptures and repairs as well as the construction and use of the CRICT coding scheme.

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