The project objective is to conduct a Phase II clinical trial to study the efficacy and safety of the Marriage Checkup (MC), an indicated preventive intervention for treatment-avoidant couples at-risk of marital deterioration and divorce. In addition to the suffering inherent in marital deterioration and divorce, these processes have been associated with increased risk of major depression, substance abuse, domestic violence, physical illness, poorer medical treatment adherence, and poorer child mental and physical health. Couples that become severely distressed and eventually dissolve their marriages first pass through an at-risk stage in which they experience early symptoms of marital deterioration but have not yet suffered irreversible damage. Couples in this at-risk stage are unlikely to seek treatment because they have not yet become distressed enough to see the need or because the barriers to therapy are too great. Such couples also do not seek premarital interventions because they are in established marriages. However, it is during the at-risk stage that couples may benefit most from early intervention. Intervening with couples in this at-risk stage fills a niche between the distress inoculation provided by prevention programs and the intensive treatment provided by couple therapy. There are currently no empirically established programs for intervening early in the process of relationship deterioration. The MC is the first such program. The first objective is to determine the efficacy of the MC as a means of identifying and providing early intervention with treatment-avoidant couples at-risk for marital deterioration and divorce. The objective is to demonstrate that treatment-avoidant couples at-risk of marital deterioration will be attracted to participate in the MC. The second objective is to determine the efficacy of the MC as a means of providing immediate relief from the symptoms of marital distress that may hinder effective marital health behaviors, specifically lack of intimacy, collaboration, and motivation to change. The third objective is to determine the efficacy of the MC as a means of motivating appropriate help seeking. The fourth objective is to determine the efficacy of the MC as a means of preventing marital deterioration/divorce and their sequelae. The MC should facilitate couples' efforts to improve their marital health, which in turn should arrest and reverse relationship deterioration that they would otherwise experience, as well as alleviate the known negative effects of marital distress on partners' mental, physical, and children's' health. ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD045281-02
Application #
7236208
Study Section
Psychosocial Development, Risk and Prevention Study Section (PDRP)
Program Officer
Evans, V Jeffrey
Project Start
2006-05-01
Project End
2011-04-30
Budget Start
2007-05-01
Budget End
2008-04-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$215,210
Indirect Cost
Name
Clark University (Worcester, MA)
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
957447782
City
Worcester
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
01610
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Morrill, Melinda Ippolito; Hawrilenko, Matt; Córdova, James V (2016) A longitudinal examination of positive parenting following an acceptance-based couple intervention. J Fam Psychol 30:104-113
Hawrilenko, Matt; Eubanks Fleming, C J; Goldstein, Alana S et al. (2016) Motivating Action and Maintaining Change: The Time-Varying Role of Homework Following a Brief Couples' Intervention. J Marital Fam Ther 42:396-408
Cordova, James V; Fleming, C J Eubanks; Morrill, Melinda Ippolito et al. (2014) The Marriage Checkup: a randomized controlled trial of annual relationship health checkups. J Consult Clin Psychol 82:592-604
Fleming, C J Eubanks; Cordova, James V (2012) Predicting Relationship Help Seeking Prior to a Marriage Checkup. Fam Relat 61:90-100
Morrill, Melinda Ippolito; Eubanks-Fleming, Cj; Harp, Amanda G et al. (2011) The marriage checkup: increasing access to marital health care. Fam Process 50:471-85
Morrill, Melinda Ippolito; Hines, Denise A; Mahmood, Sehar et al. (2010) Pathways between marriage and parenting for wives and husbands: the role of coparenting. Fam Process 49:59-73