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Marriage Enrichment: the Use of Computers to Teach Communication Skills

In this study, a computerized marriage enrichment program that gave couples instruction on communication skills and problem-solving was developed and tested. Couples completed the marriage enrichment courseware together on a computer. Forty couples from a metropolitan area in North Texas volunteered to complete the marriage enrichment courseware. Ten couples were randomly assigned to each of the following four groups: an experimental group that received the pretest followed by treatment and a post-test, a control-wait group that completed pre- and post-tests, an experimental group that received treatment followed by a post-test, and a post-test only control-wait: group. Three hypotheses were generated predicting that experimental subjects would significantly increase their marital communication skills following the treatment and that wives in the pre-test and experimental groups would achieve higher marital communication scores than would husbands. The dependent variable was the score on the Marital Communication Inventory (Bienvenu, 1970). Analyses of variance did not reveal any differences between husbands, wives, and couples at the pre- or post-tests. A three way analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect for treatment (p < .04), but no interaction effects were found. In related findings, a t-test on the post-test minus pre-test difference for wife's scores was significant beyond the .005 level of confidence. Pearson product-moment correlations between the amount of time spent on the marriage enrichment courseware and posttest scores suggested that couples who spent more time completing the program were more likely to achieve higher scores. A regression analysis confirmed the significance of time spent on increased post-test scores (p < .0085). Based on these findings, it seems appropriate to conclude that computerized marriage enrichment courseware is a promising approach for couples who spend at least two hours completing the material.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc331913
Date05 1900
CreatorsRamsay, Annetta
ContributorsWilborn, Bobbie L., Overton, Thomas D., Brookshire, William K., Medler, Byron, Kitchens, James A.
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatv, 79 leaves, Text
CoverageUnited States - Texas
RightsPublic, Ramsay, Annetta, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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