Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T13:25:19.020Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Brief Behavioural Couples Therapy: A Preliminary Evaluation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

W. Kim Halford ,
Sue Osgarby  and
Adrian Kelly
W. Kim Halford
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Australia
Sue Osgarby
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Australia
Adrian Kelly
Affiliation:
University of Queensland, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The marital satisfaction of sixteen maritally distressed couples who received three sessions of Brief Behavioural Couples Therapy (BBCT), and 24 couples who received 12 to 15 sessions of Traditional Behavioural Couples Therapy (TBCT), were compared before and after treatment in a quasi-experimental design. A 2 way ANOVA of treatment (BBCT versus TBCT) by time (pre- and post-treatment) showed both conditions produced significant increases in marital satisfaction, but there were no significant differences between the effects of the two treatments. The results need replication within a true experimental evaluation, but suggest that brief behavioural couples therapy may be a viable treatment option for some distressed couples.

Type
Clinical Section
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , July 1996 , pp. 263 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baucom, D.H. and Epstein, N. (1990). Cognitive behavioual marital therapy. New York: Brunner Mazel.Google Scholar
Beach, S.R.H. and O'Leary, K.D. (1986). The treatment of depression occurring in the context of marital discord. Behavior Therapy 17, 43–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behrens, B.C., Sanders, M.R. and Halford, W.K. (1993). Behavioral marital therapy: an evaluation of treatment effects across high and low risk settings. Behavior Therapy 21, 423–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, R.L. and Schwebel, A.I. (1995). Meta-analytic review of marital therapy outcome research. Journal of Family Psychology 9, 56–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eidelson, R.J. and Epstein, N. (1982). Cognition and relationship maladjustment: development of a measure of dysfunctional relationship beliefs. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 50, 715–720.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Emmelkamp, P.M.G., van Linden van den Heuvell, C., Sanderman, R. and Scholing, A. (1988). Cognitive marital therapy: the process of change. Journal of Family Psychology 1, 385–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, L.S. and Johnson, S.M. (1988). Emotionally focused couples therapy. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hahlweg, K. and Markman, H.J. (1988). Effectiveness of behavioral marital therapy: empirical status of behavioral techniques in preventing and alleviating marital distress. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 56, 440–447.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halford, W.K. (in press). Couples therapy: helping partners manage change. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Halford, W.K. and Markman, H.J. (in press). The concept of healthy marriage. In Halford, W.K. and Markman, H.J. (Eds). Clinical handbook of marriage and couples interventions. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Halford, W.K., Sanders, M.R. and Behrens, B.C. (1993). A comparison of the generalisation of behavioral marital therapy and enhanced behavioral marital therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 61, 51–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halford, W.K., Sanders, M.R. and Behrens, B.C. (1994). Self-regulation in behavioral couples therapy. Behavior Therapy 25, 431–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iverson, A. and Baucom, D.H. (1990). Behavioral marital therapy outcomes: alternative interpretations of the data. Behavioral Therapy 21, 129–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, N.S. (1989). The maintenance of treatment gains following social-learning based marital therapy. Behavior Therapy 20, 325–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, N.S. and Truax, P. (1991). Clinical significance: a statistical approach to defining meaningful change in psychotherapy research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 59, 12–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
LeBow, J.L. and Gurman, A.S. (1995). Research assessing couple and family therapy. Annual Review of Psychology 46, 27–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Margolin, G., Talovic, S. and Weinstein, C.D. (1983). Areas of change questionnaire: a practical approach to marital assessment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 51, 920–931.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, R.B. and Evans, L. (1983). Living and loving together. Ringwood, Australia: Penguin.Google Scholar
Osgarby, S.M. and Halford, W.K. (1996). Positive and negative communication that differentiates maritally distressed and happy couples. Manuscript submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Russeli, M.A.H., Wilson, C., Taylor, C. and Baker, C.D. (1979). Effect of general practitioner's advice against smoking. British Medical Journal 124, 231–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, M.R. and Markie-Dadds, C. (1994). Triple P (Positive Parenting of Preschoolers) program: a controlled evaluation of an early intervention program for children with disruptive behavior problems.Paper presented at the 28th Annual Convention of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy.San Diego, California.November.Google Scholar
Sanders, M.R. (Ed) (1995). Healthy families healthy nation. Brisbane, Australia: Australian Academic Press.Google Scholar
Shadish, W.R., Montgomery, L.M., Wilson, P., Wilson, M.R., Bright, I. and Okwumabua, T. (1993). Effects of family and marital psychotherapies: a meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 61, 992–1002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snyder, D.K., Wills, R.M. and Grady-Fletcher, A. (1991). Long term effectiveness of behavioral versus insight orientated marital therapy: a 4-year follow-up study. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 59, 138–141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sobell, M.B. and Sobell, L.C. (1993). Problem drinkers: guided self-change treatment. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Spanier, G.B. (1976). Measuring dyadic adjustment: new scales for assessing the quality of marriage and similar dyads. Journal of Marriage and the Family 38, 15–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, R.L. and Cerreto, M.C. (1980). The Marital Status Inventory: development of a measure of dissolution potential. American Journal of Family Therapy 8, 80–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, R.L. and Halford, W.K. (1995). Managing couples therapy. In Van Hasselt, V. and Hersen, M. (Eds). Sourcebook of psychological treatment manuals for adult disorders (pp. 312–341). New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Weiss, R.L. and Heyman, R.E. (1990). Observation of marital interaction. In Fincham, F.D. and Bradbury, T.N. (Eds). The psychology of marriage (pp 87–117). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Wolcott, I. and Glezer, H. (1989). Marriage counselling in Australia: an evaluation. Melbourne, Australia: Institute of Family Studies.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.