The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of contemporary couple enrichment using currently-accepted standards of meta-analytic research. Twenty-seven published studies that compared enrichment groups to control groups were included in the analyses. The overall mean effect size (0.32), post-treatment effect size (0.35), and follow-up effect size (0.35) for couple enrichment were heterogeneous, positive, and significantly different than 0. Mean effect sizes for both post-treatment and follow-up did not differ significantly, Moderator variables associated with program type, measure type, nature of dependent variable, quality of methodology, measure reactivity, measure specificity, and researcher allegiance significantly improved homogeneity across effect sizes, Effect sizes were significantly greater for behavioral measures, studies with higher methodological quality, measures tailored to treatment, and studies with high researcher allegiance. Other moderator variables -- date of publication, number of dependent variables and total program length -- were not significantly related to magnitude of effect size Limitations of the study were discussed and implications for future research and clinical practice were outlined.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-6336 |
| Date | 01 January 1997 |
| Creators | Hight, Terry L. |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © The Author |
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