Couple relationship education content: What we have and what we are missing.

Couple relationship education (CRE) has decades of research showing mixed results for participants. Various competing frameworks for CRE content have emerged in the development of the field, yet content has not been systematically investigated. Through an inductive content analysis of 15 different CRE programs, this study explored content themes and categories that are common across programs.

How do I analyze thee? Let me count the ways: considering empathy in couple relationships using self and partner ratings.

In this article we describe some of the benefits and challenges of using self ratings and ratings of the partner to measure empathy and similar terms in couple research. If both members of the dyad are assessed, there will be four measures of the same variable. How to use these 4 measures in research and clinical work is a central question in this paper.

Adapting enactments to couple reactivity: five developmental stages.

Interest in change interventions that are common to different models of relationship therapy has spurred investigation of enactments as one such candidate. In change-focused enactments, therapists structure and coach couple/family interaction, as opposed to channeling interaction through the therapist. Still, varying levels of couple/family distress, volatility, and reactivity mean that readiness for enactment intervention varies along a broad continuum and changes over the course of therapy.