Journal of marital and family therapy最新文献

Remarried couples who experience infertility face unique stressors requiring effective dyadic coping. Research rarely examines how family functioning and posttraumatic growth jointly influence dyadic coping through an indirect pathway involving marital quality. This cross-sectional study of 318 couples, utilizing the actor–partner interdependence mediation model, examined these relationships. Results showed family functioning, through higher levels of marital quality, positively influenced both one's own dyadic coping (actor effect) and one's partner's dyadic coping (partner effect). Posttraumatic growth, through higher levels of marital quality, positively influenced one's own dyadic coping (actor effect). These findings underscore marital quality as a pivotal pathway for enhancing dyadic coping in remarried couples that are experiencing infertility, guiding targeted clinical interventions.

This article describes three systemic family therapy research programs that seek to influence government policies and institutional practices for improving equitable access to services across culturally diverse communities in the United States of America, South Asia, and East Africa. The programs described in these contexts represent culturally responsive and engaged training approaches with professionals in underserved communities, global mental healthcare access, and family therapy with LGBTQ youth. Engaged scholarship is utilized as a paradigm for anchoring the varied programs and their impact on policy and practice. The authors describe their unique academic journeys as engaged family therapy scholars who view marrying research to policy as an intentional good. The authors conclude with several calls, including centering the voices of the community, formulating research questions for community impact, producing and rewarding public scholarship, and embodying humility as an engaged scholar.

Chapman's Five Love Languages have been embraced by the public and incorporated into therapeutic practice, offering a simple framework for expressing and receiving love. However, it is unclear whether the proposed five love languages fully capture the multitude of ways that individuals express love. In three studies with individuals in long-term relationships residing in the United States (N = 696, 500, 499), we used a bottom-up approach to revise a previously developed measure of love languages using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Solutions ranging from 7 to 10 love languages provided superior fits to the data and better predicted relationship quality than the 5-factor solution. These findings suggest that Chapman′s model may be overly narrow, and that expanding the framework could help therapists better understand clients' relational needs. By offering a more comprehensive vocabulary for loving behavior, this study lays the foundation for more effective interventions in relationship therapy.

Dating apps have revolutionized the way people seek romantic connections, boasting a staggering 320 million users worldwide. An estimated 20%–40% of adults in the United States reported meeting their romantic partners online. While online dating research has become more popular, little attention has been paid to the experiences of racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) individuals and the unique obstacles they encounter. Utilizing the Minority Stress Model and intersectionality theory, this study investigates how overlapping marginalized identities influence REM individuals' experiences in online dating settings, revealing structural discrimination, identity-based stresses, and their effects. Through semistructured interviews, the research identified key challenges and analyzed intersectional experiences. The themes included gendered expectations, cultural compatibility, identity salience, stigma, and emotional burnout. Drawing upon participants' perspectives captured through a phenomenological approach, the study illuminates these concerns and furthers academic knowledge and therapeutic implications, promoting empathy, cultural awareness, and equity in online dating.

Preventive and promotive couple-based programs are known to increase relationship satisfaction and reduce marital discord. However, such services are rare in India. Since 2011, the Couple Enrichment Clinic in Bangalore, South India, has been providing support to couples experiencing mild to moderate psychological distress. This retrospective chart review examines data from 54 couples who consulted the clinic between January 2023 and July 2024. The majority were urban, educated couples seeking help for issues like life transitions, communication difficulties, trust, and conflict management. Therapy was delivered through conjoint, individual, or combined sessions, using an integrative approach adapted from enrichment modules like PAIRS and PREP and strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), emotionally focused therapy (EFT), and systemic principles. Cultural themes including extended family dynamics were also explored. The study emphasizes the unique needs of Indian couples and suggests that integrated therapeutic approaches can effectively promote relational health in this cultural context.

In 2005, the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education announced its transition to an outcomes-based accreditation model for C/MFT training programs. This transition to outcomes-based C/MFT education was lauded for bringing newfound freedom to instructors in C/MFT graduate programs and for ushering a paradigm shift toward collaborative, student-responsive clinical pedagogy in C/MFT training. The current study utilized a systematic research synthesis approach to explore how trainees' experiences are being conceptualized in the empirical research on master's-level C/MFT following the field's transition to outcomes-based education. Results indicated that trainees' experiences within the training context are a prevalent element in recent training-focused research, with many studies presenting trainees' experiences as a relevant factor for understanding how a given training “input” influences a trainee's eventual development of training-related skill and competency outcomes. Recommendations for instructors, C/MFT faculty, and future research toward evidence-informed clinical pedagogy are provided.

With the rise in metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS), many patients likely have family members who also underwent MBS, yet how attachment to these relatives affects surgical outcomes remains unclear. Understanding this relationship is crucial, as attachment influences emotional regulation, self-efficacy, and behavior change—key factors in long-term weight management and surgical success. This study examined whether attachment styles influenced body mass index (BMI) changes from presurgery to 6 months postsurgery in 123 MBS patients. Patients with higher avoidant attachment to a family member who had MBS had higher BMI at intake (b = 3.16) but showed more rapid weight loss over 6 months (b = − 2.02). Anxious attachment was unrelated to intake BMI but predicted less favorable BMI trajectories over 6 months (b = 0.82). Findings underscore the importance of considering attachment dynamics in families where multiple members have undergone MBS.

This study sought to address the gap in understanding polyamorous individuals' responses to their partner's New Relationship Energy (i.e., the excited giddiness of burgeoning intimate relationships) with another partner. Individuals who reported greater mindfulness were hypothesized to report less jealousy (through better emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and the undoing effect) and greater compersion (through empathy). Polyamorous participants (N = 122) were recruited online and anonymously completed surveys through Qualtrics. Mindfulness was associated with lower jealousy through greater emotion regulation, greater distress tolerance, and, to a lesser extent, the undoing effect. Mindfulness was also associated with greater compersion, but not through empathy. Findings may help researchers and clinicians better understand the range of reactions one might have to a partner's New Relationship Energy with another intimate partner and facilitate the development of interventions for individuals who desire to have a different emotional response.

We aimed to investigate the coexistence, profiles, and transitions of differentiation of self (DoS) and perceived social support (PSS), and the associations between transitions and adolescents' loneliness and depressive symptoms. We surveyed 1342 adolescents (Age: M = 14.14, SD = 1.60) in November 2019 (T1), November 2020 (T2), and November 2021 (T3). We conducted cross-lagged panel modeling (CLPM), latent profile analysis (LPA) using dimensions of DoS (i.e., emotional reactivity, I position, emotional cutoff, fusion with others) and PSS (i.e., family, peers, and others), and random intercept latent transition analysis (RI-LTA). CLPM revealed that PSS influenced subsequent DoS. LPA and RI-LTA identified nine transitions between four profiles (Parallel Low DoS and PSS; Low I Position and PSS; Parallel High DoS and PSS; Low I Position and High PSS). Stable or decreasing DoS and PSS characterized risk for loneliness and depressive symptoms, whereas synchronic increasing of I position and PSS characterized risk for loneliness.