https://aub.ie/MilitaryREACH-Crenshaw2022

Crenshaw, A. O., Libet, J., Petty, K., Teves, J. B., Huang, A., & Mitchell, J. (2023). Subjective emotion trajectories in couple therapy and associations with improvement in relationship satisfaction. Family Process, 62(4), 1542-1554. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12843

Integrative behavioral couple therapy (IBCT) is a form of therapy that aims to help couples connect through the sharing of their subjective emotional experiences. This study used a sample of 27 Veterans and their romantic partners (N = 54 individuals) who participated in IBCT to investigate whether changes in “hard” negative emotions (i.e., anger, annoyance, irritation), “soft” negative emotions (i.e., sadness, hurt, disappointment), and positive emotions (i.e., happiness, satisfaction, contentment) were related to changes in relationship satisfaction over the course of their therapy sessions. Participants individually rated their relationship satisfaction at the beginning of each session. At the end of each session, participants rated the extent to which they had experienced specific emotions during the session. Overall, increases in positive emotions and decreases in “hard” negative emotions led to improved relationship satisfaction.

https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12843

Veterans
Couples

Multiple branches

Veteran

Parent of a service member or veteran
Veteran

Adulthood (18 yrs & older)
Young adulthood (18 - 29 yrs)
Thirties (30 - 39 yrs)
Middle age (40 - 64 yrs)

Longitudinal Study
Qualitative Study

Crenshaw, Alexander O., Libet, Julian, Petty, Karen, Teves, Jenna B., Huang, Alice, Mitchell, Jerez

Existing couple therapies are generally effective for reducing romantic relationship distress and divorce, but therapy outcomes remain poor for many. Outcomes can be improved through greater understanding of session-by-session therapeutic processes, particularly in real-world treatment settings. Modern couple therapy models commonly emphasize the importance of emotional experiences as key change processes, yet few empirical studies have tested the merits of this focus. The present study addresses this limitation by examining trajectories of subjective emotions and their association with change in a key relationship outcome, relationship satisfaction, among military veterans and their partners at a VA Medical Center. Partners rated their relationship satisfaction prior to couple therapy sessions and subjective emotions immediately after sessions. Consistent with hypotheses, both hard (e.g., anger) and soft (e.g., sadness) negative emotions decreased significantly over the course of therapy. Those couples with greater decreases in hard negative, but not soft negative, emotions showed significantly more improvement in relationship satisfaction. Positive emotions did not significantly change across couples in general, but those couples whose positive emotions did increase also showed more improvement in relationship satisfaction. These results suggest change in subjective emotions may be one process underlying improvement in couple therapy and lend empirical support to the emphasis on emotion-based change processes underlying acceptance-based and emotion-focused couple therapies.

Article
REACH Publication

couple therapy, hard and soft emotions, integrative behavioral couple therapy, subjective emotions, therapy process

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/famp.12843

Research Summary

  March 2023