Interpersonal Behavior in Couple Therapy: Concurrent and Prospective Associations with Depressive Symptoms and Relationship Distress

Objective: This study investigated associations between couples’ interpersonal behavior, depressive symptoms, and relationship distress over the course of couple psychotherapy. Method: After every other session of Integrative Systemic Therapy (M = 13 sessions), N = 100 individuals within 50 couples rated their in-session affiliation and autonomy behavior using the circumplex-based Structural Analysis of Social Behavior Intrex. Concurrent and prospective associations of interpersonal behavior with depressive symptoms and relationship distress were evaluated via multivariate multilevel modeling using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model. Results: An individual’s hostility, as well as the partner’s hostility, positively predicted an individual’s concurrent depressive symptoms and relationship distress, as well as his or her relationship distress at the following session. Partner hostility during one session predicted an individual’s subsequent depressive symptoms. During sessions in which individuals controlled the partner, and separated themselves from the partner, they reported more concurrent depressive symptoms and relationship distress, and more subsequent relationship distress. When partners separated themselves, individuals reported more concurrent depressive symptoms and relationship distress, and more subsequent relationship distress. Conclusions: Results underscore the importance of couples’ in-session affiliation and autonomy behavior in the treatment of depressive symptoms and relationship distress within couple therapy

Communication of military couples during deployment predicting generalized anxiety upon reunion

This study draws on the emotional cycle of deployment model (Pincus, House, Christenson, & Adler, 2001) to consider how the valence of communication between military personnel and at-home partners during deployment predicts their generalized anxiety upon reunion. Online survey data were collected from 555 military couples (N = 1,110 individuals) once per month for 8 consecutive months beginning at homecoming. Dyadic growth curve modeling results indicated that people’s anxiety declined across the transition. For at-home partners, constructive communication during deployment predicted a steeper decline in anxiety over time. For both returning service members and at-home partners, destructive communication during deployment predicted more anxiety upon reunion but a steeper decline in anxiety over time. Results were robust beyond the frequency of communication during deployment and a host of individual, relational, and military variables. These findings advance the emotional cycle of deployment model, highlight the importance of the valence of communication during deployment, and illuminate how the effects of communication during deployment can endure after military couples are reunited

Verbal Response Modes in Action:Microrelationships as the Building Blocks of Relationship Role Dimensions

Dimensions of interpersonal relationships, such as attentiveness, directiveness, and presumptuousness, have typically been assessed through impressionistic ratings or by aggregate scores derived from coding of specific (e.g., verbal) behaviors. However, the meanings of these dimensions rest on the interpersonal microrelationships that are actually observed by the raters or coders. In this qualitative study, the way these global relationship qualities were built from microrelationships at the utterance level was examined in passages from one medical interaction. Applications of microrelationships to future communications research are suggested

Treatment Response in Couple Therapy: Relationship Adjustment and Individual Functioning Change Processes

This study, a naturalistic investigation of the process of change in relationship adjustment and individual functioning during conjoint therapy, examined the first 8 sessions of a multisystemic model of couple therapy, integrative problem-centered metaframeworks (Breunlin, Pinsof, Russell, & Lebow, 2011; Pinsof, Breunlin, Russell, & Lebow, 2011). The sample consisted of 125 heterosexual couples who reported on their relationship adjustment and individual functioning before every session using the Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (Pinsof et al., 2009; Pinsof, Zinbarg, et al., in press). Data were analyzed using dyadic latent growth curve and cross-lagged models. For both men and women, relationship adjustment and individual functioning showed nonlinear change, increasing during Sessions 1–4 and stabilizing during Sessions 5–8. At pretreatment, women reported lower levels of relationship adjustment than men; no gender differences existed in initial levels of individual functioning or in the change trajectories of relationship adjustment or individual functioning. Higher relationship adjustment predicted positive change in individual functioning for men (but not for women). In contrast, there were no cross-lagged effects of individual functioning on relationship adjustment for men or women. The results demonstrate the importance of examining the processes by which relational and individual pathology respond to couple-based interventions

Mental Health Symptoms and The Reintegration Difficulty of Military Couples Following Deployment: A Longitudinal Application of The Relational Turbulence Model

Objective Understanding the factors that predict the reintegration difficulty of military couples during the postdeployment transition has important implications for theory, research, and practice. Building on the logic of the relational turbulence model, this paper evaluates the relationship processes of reunion uncertainty and reintegration interference from a partner as mediators of the connection between people\u27s mental health symptoms and their difficulty with reintegration after deployment. Method Dyadic longitudinal data were collected from 555 US military couples once per month for 8 consecutive months. Results Findings mapped the trajectory of reintegration difficulty and suggested reunion uncertainty and reintegration interference from a partner as mediators of the link between people\u27s depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms and the magnitude of their reintegration difficulty. Conclusion These results highlight relationship processes as a key domain of intervention to preserve the well‐being of military couples during the postdeployment transition

Convergence and Divergence of Themes in Successful Psychotherapy: An Assimilation Analysis

Theme convergence is the linking of seemingly unrelated problem domains as they advance through assimilation stages-a developmental sequence of cognitive and affective changes through which problematic content is hypothesized to pass during successful psychotherapy. Theme divergence is the contradiction or conflict of solutions to different problems, so that progress in one domain leads to stagnation or regression in another domain. An intensive qualitative method called assimilation analysis was used to examine theme convergence and divergence in a successful psychodynamic psychotherapy with a 20–yr–old female patient. Because specific problems often fail to progress monotonically, even in successful psychotherapy cases, it is suggested that clients\u27 problems cannot be resolved in isolation; instead, they may influence each other toward resolution or stagnation in complex and unpredictable ways

Battling on the Home Front: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Conflict Behavior Among Military Couples

This study evaluated interpersonal behavior differences among male military service members with and without PTSD and their female partners. Couples (N = 64) completed a 17-minute videotaped conflict discussion, and their interaction behavior was coded using the circumplex-based Structural Analysis of Social Behavior model (SASB; Benjamin, 1979, 1987, 2000). Within couples, the behavior of partners was very similar. Compared to military couples without PTSD, couples with PTSD displayed more interpersonal hostility and control. Couples with PTSD also exhibited more sulking, blaming, and controlling behavior, and less affirming and connecting behavior, than couples without PTSD. Results advance our understanding of the relational impacts of PTSD on military service members and their partners, and underscore the value of couple-based interventions for PTSD in the context of relationship distress

Military Children’s Difficulty with Reintegration after Deployment: A Relational Turbulence Model Perspective

This study drew on the relational turbulence model to investigate how the interpersonal dynamics of military couples predict parents’ reports of the reintegration difficulty of military children upon homecoming after deployment. Longitudinal data were collected from 118 military couples once per month for 3 consecutive months after reunion. Military couples reported on their depressive symptoms, characteristics of their romantic relationship, and the reintegration difficulty of their oldest child. Results of dyadic growth curve models indicated that the mean levels of parents’ depressive symptoms (H1), relationship uncertainty (H2), and interference from a partner (H3) were positively associated with parents’ reports of military children’s reintegration difficulty. These findings suggest that the relational turbulence model has utility for illuminating the reintegration difficulty of military children during the postdeployment transition

Normal and Abnormal Personality Traits are Associated with Marital Satisfaction for both Men and Women: An Actor–Partner Interdependence Model Analysis

Research has demonstrated associations between relationship satisfaction and personality traits. Using the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model, we explored associations between self-reported relationship satisfaction in couples (n = 118) and various measures of normal and abnormal personality, including higher-order dimensions of PE/Extraversion, NE/Neuroticism, Constraint (CON), and their lower-order facets. We also examined gender differences and moderators of associations. Consistent with the Vulnerability Stress Adaptation Model, self- and partner-reported NE and PE were related to satisfaction, and their lower-order traits demonstrated differential associations with satisfaction. Further, abnormal personality traits specific to the interpersonal domain and personality disorder symptoms demonstrated effects. Relationship length emerged as a significant moderator, with associations weakening as relationship duration increased