EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS AMONG MARRIED COUPLES: AN OVERVIEW

This study aimed to analyse the effective communication skills among married couples for building and maintaining strong couple relationships. The results of the study have an important implication for couple communication includes theory and lays the foundation in their relationship toolbox. Most theoretical, explaining the degree of ambiguity in the models governing couples’ expectations for and self-disclosure performance responsibilities affects the behaviour change. These factors appear to have dominated the development of theory to facilitate efficient tasks, minimize bids for influence, enable partners to feel effective and respected. While the process of adjustment and adaptation entail continued negotiation of responsibilities, repeated demands, directives, and tension within the couple. Couple therapy reflects the outcome of reduced relationship distress and communication skills that affect individual psychopathology, such as depression and the shortcomings of psychological interventions for preventing marital distress. These efforts may lead to successful adjustment to prevent marital distress that produces short-term changes in behaviour and relationship satisfaction, but little evidence exists demonstrating a long-term prevention effect. The value of studying couple’s communication pattern by using principles from psychology, concern about the negative impact of marital conflict and strengthened in response to the demands imposed more comprehensive outcome measured. Therefore, conceptualizing and measuring quality rooted an important theory and interventions that prioritize couple communication skills as the key predictor of relationship satisfaction, while raising new questions about other factors that might predict strengthen or moderate their association. As results, these findings shows a supporting understanding about what interaction and transactional processes take place in couples that the interpersonal communications skills between couples can predict satisfaction of their marital life. KEYWORDS: Communication Skills, Couples, Relationships, Marital Therapy, Character

Case-Based Evidence for Screening Pornography in Marital Therapy

Pornography has become a modality to experience sexual expression. It is used in a recreational manner to enhance sexual life. However, in some cases, excessive usage can lead to distress in the other partner. In this case, the client sought help at the specialty clinic for management of pornography use. A clinical interview was used to get details of the patterns of porn use and dysfunctions caused by the same. Beck’s Depression Inventory was used for the assessment of associated depression. The results highlight the presence of distress in the female partner due to excessive pornography consumption in the other partner. This report has implications for developing sensitization and intervention program to address these issues within the marital context.

phenomenon of divorce and its challenge to the black African communities: A need for pastoral and indigenous African marital therapy

Divorce is a painful and traumatic experience that disrupt the lives of people. Research has shown that the phenomenon of divorce among black South Africans is escalating on a yearly basis. This is accompanied by both emotional, spiritual and psychological effects which impact on the well-being of people. Furthermore, divorce is understood as a disruption of normal life and it also threatens the stability and sustainability of social institutions. As the article is written from a context of pastoral care and counselling, it acknowledges the existence of other forms of care beyond the boundaries of the Christian ministry of healing. The indigenous African martial therapy plays a vital role in black African communities in strengthening marital bonds and its longevity. Even though this African model has been disrupted by the wave of industrialisation and urbanisation, the article argues that its methods of healing, counselling and mediatory role are necessary for African people and in response to the collapse of the institution of marriage.

How WEIRD and androcentric is sex research? Global inequities in study populations

Previous researchers have noted the domination of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) samples in fields like psychology. In this study we asked: how WEIRD and androcentric is contemporary sex research? We focused on two historically underrepresented groups in research, namely non-WEIRD and women/gender non-conforming samples. We analyzed 2,223 articles drawn from five leading journals in scientific sexuality research (Archives of Sexual Behavior, Journal of Sex Research, Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, Journal of Sexual Medicine, and International Journal of Sexual Health). We coded the national context and gender of sampled populations for articles published between 2015 and 2019 in these journals. Results indicated that WEIRD populations dominate the published findings in sex research (ranging from 68% to 88%). Two journals had a higher number of studies that only included men as participants, and one a higher number of samples that consisted of only women, and very few included gender diverse samples (i.e., non-binary, trans*, intersex). Recommendations for improving the current research and publishing practices are discussed.

Effectiveness of Marital Couple Interventions on Marital Conflict: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Experimental Studies

Background: Marital life is an important social institution that greatly influences the health and well-being of individuals and the entire society. Inherently, marriage is a complex phenomenon that the risks for marital instability are ubiquitous including social upheavals, stay home order due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID 19). Several studies have been proposed different interventions to optimize the quality of marital life. However, problems related to marital conflict are getting worse and there are uncertainties about the effectiveness of the interventions. Thus, the current systematic review was aimed at examining the effectiveness of interventions in reducing a variety of aspects of marital conflict among the cohort of married couples.Methods: Randomized controlled trial (RCT) and Qazi experimental studies describing the effectiveness of marital couple interventions published over the last 10 years were retrieved from six electronic databases using different search terms, Medical subject heading (MeSH) terms “Marital therapy”, “Couple therapy”, or “Marital couple therapy” included in this study. The risk of bias in individual studies assessed based on the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. The effectiveness of the interventions was examined by comparing the intervention group with those who did not receive the intervention. Results: A total of 14, 536 records are searched from 6 databases, and eleven of these studies are included in the final systematic review and meta-analysis. Overall, the included studies were identified to have a low risk of bias and a substantial level of heterogeneity (I2 =96%). The meta-analysis confirmed that marital couple’s interventions significantly improved marital conflict among distressed couples (Pooled effect size, -1.71, [-2.93, -0.49])Conclusions: This finding indicated that marital couples’ interventions effectively reduce marital conflict among a cohort of married couples. Thus, marital counselors and educators are strongly suggested to compile and use the interventions outline in this study. Funding: There is no source of funding, that, the authors have no competing interests to declare. Systematic review registration: This study is registered as PROSPERO: CRD42020218280

A SSES-E

LIBMAN, E.; ROTHENBERG, I.; FICHTEN, C. S.; ANSEL, R. A SSES-E: A Medida da Auto-Eficácia Sexual na Função Erétil. Journal of Sex Marital Therapy 11(4): 234-47, 1985.

Individuals Presenting without Partners at a Sexual Dysfunction Clinic

CATALAN, J.; HAWTON, K.; DAY, A., Individuals Presenting without Partners at a Sexual Dysfunction Clinic: Psychological and Physical Morbidity and Treatment Offer ed. Sexual and Marital Therapy 6(1):15-24, 1991.

Infrequent Orgasms in Womens

RABOCH, JAN & RABOCH, JIRI. “Infrequent Orgasms in Women” Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy. Volume 18, number 2, summer 1992, pp. 114-120.

Are Differences in Bedtimes Bad for Relationships? Associations With Attachment and Conflict in Middle-Aged Couples

A robust body of literature has found birdirectional associations between sleep quality and marital quality in couple relationships (Hasler & Troxel, 2010; Pearlin, 2010). Additionally, dyadic research shows that differences in couples’ bed time routines and habits is associated with mental health outcomes (Chen, 2018), however the literature has not connected them with other marital processes that are mutable and clinically relevant. Attachment theory provides a clinically relevant framework that captures both interpersonal marital processes such as relationship conflict as well intrapersonal processes of individual emotional safety—essentially individuals’ personal strategies to balance closeness and distance in a relationship (Feeney, 2002; Rhodes et al., 2001). The two main attachment styles related to sleep processes are attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety (Collins et al., 2002; Gun, 2015; Troxel, 2007). Utilizing data from 234 couple dyads, we investigated if differences in partners’ bed times is associated with conflict frequency and attachment avoidance using a structural equation modeling approach. We controlled for a number of important factors and tested our hypothesized model against two plausible alternative models. Results revealed that greater difference in partners’ bed times was associated with higher conflict frequency for both husbands and wives through higher men’s attachment avoidance. Our findings highlight previous research on matched vs. unmatched couples on sleep routines, habits, and chronotypes (both morning or night vs. different; Larson et al., 1991) but highlight mutable and clinically relevant constructs for intervention. Implications for health promotion and marital therapy will be discussed.