Traditional couple counseling research focused on why people end relationships, with research only recently addressing what factors contribute to relationship satisfaction and stability. Yet, throughout this research, minimal attention has been paid to the role of play in couple counseling. The research available on play in couple counseling had varied definitions of couple play and was not based on current couple counseling theory. The research and anecdotal data on couple play proposed a strong relationship between couple play and the factors that predict successful, long-term couple relationships, individual physical health and emotional health. This study applied current couple counseling theory and research to define couple play and the relationship between couple play and couple bonding, physical health and emotional health. The hypotheses of the study were couple play would predict couple bonding; couple play would predict individual physical health; and couple play would predict individual emotional health. The results from a sample of 30 couples demonstrated couple play predicted measures of couple bonding, including relationship satisfaction, communication, conflict resolution, and the couple's view of the relationship. Couple play demonstrated no relationship to individual physical or emotional health. Since couple play was predictive of successful, long-term couple relationship measures, the implications were discussed for using couple play in assessment and intervention in couple counseling and future research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-1408 |
| Date | 01 January 2005 |
| Creators | Vanderbleek, Linda |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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