The number of children exposed to a traumatic event seems to be continuously growing. Currently there is no research that has examined specifically how a child's traumatic experience is understood in the context of the child-caregiver relationship. The purpose of this study was to understand the dynamics of the relationship between the child and caregiver after a child's traumatic event, from the caregiver's perspective. The research design for this study was a multiple case study qualitative design involving 9 participants, recruited through criteria sampling. These participants provided data obtained through semi-structured interviews. Based on the methodology and the research question, the theoretical foundation for this study was Salvador Minuchin's structural family therapy (SFT). Minuchin's theory provided the framework and pre-existing categories for the qualitative deductive analysis of participants' interviews. The study found that the most common triad among children with a trauma history is an odd man out triad. The odd man out triad is representative of at least one family member having a cut off relationship with another family member. Results also indicate the most common relational dynamic, or theme, between the child and/or caregiver(s) was a cut off relational dynamic. These dyads and triads aid in identifying how the family subsystems are operating and subsequently inform researchers and clinicians how families organize around a traumatic event. This study also can aid in getting professionals to use a systemic lens when working with children who have experienced trauma. In conclusion, the research in this study found that not only are children impacted by their traumatic events, but the caregivers are as well.

This research presents data gathered through a needs assessment regarding approved supervision in Utah. A sample of ISO therapists in Utah gave descriptive facts about the current need for supervision in Utah as well as the number of therapists that are willing to provide supervision. Additionally, therapists that are not currently approved supervisors indicated whether or not they would be willing to become approved supervisors, what would make the designation more appealing, and what would impede them from becoming an approved supervisor. Therapists in agencies also gave information regarding how agencies currently view marriage and family therapy interns and their willingness to support approved supervision in Utah. Finally, therapists were given an opportunity to express their opinions in two open-ended questions. The findings indicate that there is an abundance of supervisors willing to provide supervision and many therapists are willing to become supervisors. The study also shows that many therapists are reluctant to become approved supervisors because of the time and cost that are associated with the current supervision process.

The purpose of this study was to determine the significance between advice, marital expectations, and marital satisfaction. This study also explored the sources couples use to gather information, or rather where they receive premarital advice, and if it was helpful. Included in this study were husbands (n = 56) and wives (n = 56) who had been married less than one year, to classify them as newlyweds. The relationship between sources of information and expectations was found to be highly significant for variables related to family of origin. It was also found that a high percentage of couples gather information from informal sources rather than from more formal methods such as premarital education classes and premarital therapy. Expectations were found to be moderately to highly significant determinants of marital satisfaction.

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Both approval and disapproval of one's social network have 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. This thesis researches the effects of disapproval of friends and family and attachment on relationship outcomes. More specifically this study looks at the potential moderating effects of couple-specific attachment behaviors on the relationship between social network disapproval and relationship quality. The RELATE data set was used to study couples and their relationship quality. The study looked at 858 married couples and found that one's own attachment behaviors moderate their own family disapproval on their own relationship quality for both men and women. Own attachment behaviors also moderated own friend's disapproval on own relationship quality for men and women. Partner's attachment behaviors moderate own friend's disapproval on own relationship quality for men and women; the main effect of partner's friends and family disapproval became non-significant with that test. The findings give evidence that attachment behaviors of both partners play a role in buffering the negative effects of the lack of social approval on relationship outcomes.

Marital discord contributes to the development and continuation of depression and to the recurrence of depressive episodes for those in troubled relationships. Early research suggests that family therapy may reduce the severity and frequency of depressive episodes through modification of family interactional patterns. This would result in a reduction in the cost of treating depression. This study summarizes the literature linking family dynamics with depression. Then,using a sample taken from a large health maintenance organization, data was statistically analyzed to measure the effectiveness of both individual and family therapy as delivered by different types of mental health professionals. Results indicated that family therapy was both effective and cost-effective in the treatment of depression.

Much research has explored the cost effectiveness of psychotherapy for schizophrenia. However, to date, no studies have investigated the cost effectiveness of family and individual therapy for schizophrenia in the "real world" of managed care. The purpose of the present study is to compare the cost effectiveness of individual and family therapy for schizophrenia in one leading Health Care Insurer: CIGNA. Six years of outpatient data (2001–2006) and more than 2,100 unique schizophrenic outpatients are included. Research questions in this study concern the total treatment costs, the cost effectiveness, recidivism rates and the dropout rates of individual and family outpatient therapy. The findings show that family therapy is a more cost effective treatment than individual therapy by having lower total treatment costs and recidivism rates. However, family therapy has higher dropout rates than individual therapy.

Relationship initiation is an integral part of romantic relationship development and a key developmental task of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2004). In addition, relationship initiation practices (such as dating) have the capacity to impact the fluctuating levels of attachment insecurity (whether anxiety or avoidance) that an individual experiences over the course of emerging adulthood (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). In the present study, I utilized latent growth curve modeling to examine whether certain dating variables (first dates, second or more dates, relationship breakups, dateless weeks) compiled over a 32 week dating history, as well as age and gender could predict change in attachment anxiety and avoidance over four time points in a sample of 309 Latter-day Saint (LDS) emerging adults. Results indicate that dateless weeks and second or more dates predicted the rate of change (i.e. slope) of attachment anxiety and that the overarching model accounted for 25% of the variance in the slope of anxiety. Findings also showed that age predicted initial levels (i.e. intercept) of attachment anxiety and that gender predicted initial levels of attachment avoidance. Findings were discussed in terms of theoretical significance and clinical application.

The purpose of the study was to gain an increased understanding of what the L.D.S. person feels during the process of divorce and postdivorce readjustment by (1) developing an interview guide to obtain the necessary data on divorce, (2) determining how strong the feelings of failure, guilt, and trauma were at different phases of the divorce process, (3) determining how the feelings of failure, guilt, and trauma were related to membership in the L.D.S. Church, its teachings, and contacts with Church authorities, and (4) gaining insights which might provide a basis for later investigation.

Guided by recent literature and theory addressing pornography use, the current study examined the associations between pornography use and acceptance of pornography and whether they predict sexual satisfaction as reported by both husbands and wives. Using data from the Relationship Evaluation Questionnaire (RELATE) (N=335 couples), a common-fate approach was used to examine both common and unique attributes of husbands and wives among pornography use, acceptance of pornography, and sexual satisfaction. Results indicate that pornography use was positively associated with pornography acceptance, but that pornography acceptance did not mediate the relationship between pornography use and sexual satisfaction. Husbands’ pornography use was negatively associated with husbands’ unique sexual satisfaction while wives’ pornography use was positively associated with couples’ shared sexual satisfaction, but negatively associated with wives’ unique sexual satisfaction. Findings emphasize pornography use as being a coupling dynamic within marriages.