Douglas H. Sprenkle

Research methods in family therapy

Part I: Introduction Sprenkle, Moon, Toward Pluralism in Family Therapy Research. Part II: Qualitative Methods: Naturalistic Research Newfield, Sells, Smith, Newfield and Newfield, Ethnographic Research Methods: Creating a Clinical Science of the Humanities. Rafuls, Moon, Grounded Theory Methodology in Family Therapy. Social Constructionist Research Boss, Dahl, Kaplan, The Use of Phenomenology for Family Therapy Research: The Search for Meaning. Critical Theory Research Rediger, Critical Theory Research: The Emancipatory Interest in Family Therapy. Avis, Turner, Feminist Lenses in Family Therapy Research: Gender, Politics and Science. Focus Group Evaluations Piercy, Nickerson, Focus Groups in Family Therapy Research. Part III Quantitative Methods: Design and Measurement Dickey, Quantitative Design in Family Therapy: Insider Hints on Getting Started. Snyder, Rice, Methodological Issues and Strategies in Scale Development. Experimental Research Lyness, Sprenkle, Experimental Methods in Marital and Family Therapy Research. Dickey, Methods for Single-Case Experiments in Family Therapy. Wampler, Serovich, Meta-Analysis in Family Therapy Research. Relational/Predictive Research Snyder, Mangrum, Approaches to Prediction: Correlation, Regression, and Discriminant Analysis. Volk, Flori, Structural Equation Modeling. Cost Effectiveness Evaluations Pike-Urlacher, MacKinnon, Piercy, Cost-Effectiveness Research in Family Therapy. Intensive Research Moon, Trepper, Case Study Research. Greenberg, Heatherington, Friedlander, The Events-Based Approach to Couple and Family Therapy Research. Bischoff, McKeel, Moon, Sprenkle, Systematically Developing Therapeutic Techniques: Applications of Research and Development. Survey Research Nelson, Survey Research in Marriage and Family Therapy. Fish, Busby, The Delphi Method. Program Evaluations Leber, St Peters, Markman, Program Evaluation Research: Applications to Marital and Family Therapy.

Family-Based Interventions for Helping Drug-Abusing Adolescents

This article describes the efficacy of two family-oriented, outpatient drug interventions for 84 adolescents who had used and abused drugs. Together, the two brief drug interventions appeared to significantly reduce the drug use of nearly one-half of the adolescentts who received the two family-focused drug interventions. It is surmised that this slccess was due partly to the fact that both outpatient interventions focus on the sxystemic treatment of entire familv groups rather than being given to the adolescents as inidiv iduals. WVheti comnpared, however the family therapy intervention appears to have been effectiv e itn reducing drug use for a greater percentage of the adolescents than did the familv education intervention.

Intervention research in couple and family therapy: a methodological and substantive review and an introduction to the special issue.

This article serves as an introduction to this third version of research reviews of couple and family therapy (CFT) that have appeared in this journal beginning in 1995. It also presents a methodological and substantive overview of research in couple and family therapy from about 2001/2002 to 2010/2011 (the period covered in this issue), while also making connections with previous research. The article introduces quantitative research reviews of family-based intervention research that appear in this issue on 10 substantive areas including conduct disorder/delinquency, drug abuse, childhood and adolescent disorders (not including the aforementioned), family psycho-education for major mental illness, alcoholism, couple distress, relationship education, affective disorders, interpersonal violence, and chronic illness. The paper also introduces the first qualitative research paper in this series, as well as a paper that highlights current methodologies in meta-analysis. The first part of this article rates the 10 content areas on 12 dimensions of methodological strength for quantitative research and makes generalizations about the state of quantitative methodology in CFT. The latter part of the papers summarizes and makes comments on the substantive findings in the 12 papers in this issue, as well as on the field as a whole.

The Minnesota Couple Communication Program: A follow-up study.

The immediate and long-term effectiveness of the Minnesota Couple Communication Program (MCCP) was investigated. Forty-three couples were assigned randomly to a MCCP or attention-placebo control group. Nine couples were recruited fbr a notreatment control group. The results indicated the MCCP had a positive effect on the couples use of an open-style communication and on the perceived quality of the couples relationship immediately after training. However, follow-up testing indicated that only the positive changes in perceived quality of relationship persisted. The MCCP appears to be an effective program in the short-run, but some modifications in the MCCP may be necessary to improve long-term effectiveness.

Common Factors of Change in Couple Therapy

Though it is clear from meta-analytic research that couple therapy works well, it is less clear how couple therapy works. Efforts to attribute change to the unique ingredients of a particular model have consistently turned up short, leading many researchers to suggest that change is due to common factors that run through different treatment approaches and settings. The purpose of this article is to provide an empirically based case for several common factors in couple therapy, and discuss clinical, training, and research implications for a common factors couple therapy paradigm. Critical distinctions between model-driven and common factors paradigms are also discussed, and a moderate common factors approach is proposed as a more useful alternative to an extreme common factors approach.

Treating Inhibited Sexual Desire: A Marital Therapy Approach.

Abstract The treatment of inhibited sexual desire (ISD) has traditionally focused on individual dysfunction. In this paper, ISD is defined as a relational phenomenon which may best be treated in the marital context. The function of the symptom of ISD as it relates to the central marital issues of power, intimacy, and boundaries is also addressed. A structural family therapy treatment strategy for ISD cases is outlined and illustrated in a case example.

Retarded ejaculation reconceptualization and implications for treatment.

Retarded ejaculation, RE, has received little attention in the past; however with greater sexual awareness, therapists may find a significant increase in requests for help with this dysfunction. A major concern of this paper is that RE has been too narrowly defined. Additional problems in previous literature include conceptual confusion, poorly defined criteria, vague descriptors, and methodological problems. Incidence, definitions and categorizations are followed by a look at etiology, assessment, and treatment results. The present article broadens the definition of RE, presents psychophysiological stimulation deprivation as a generally overlooked cause, and offers a thorough bibliography for reference purposes.

Extramarital Sexuality: Implications for Marital Therapists.

Although large numbers of clients approach marital therapists with concerns about extramarital behavior (ES), little has been written specifically about the implications of ES for practitioners. This paper uses a script theory framework to suggest why there are important attitude-behavior discrepancies concerning ES and how these differences may affect therapy. The authors also examine research findings concerning ES which do not support some widely held beliefs. This discussion includes a list of seven factors which therapist may utilize to differentiate diverse ES experiences and help couples clarify their values and intentions. Several case examples illustrate this process. Attention is also paid to the therapists own values about ES and how they may affect therapy. ES emerges as a very complex phenomenon which requires a high degree of knowledge, sensitivity, and recognition of individual differences on the part of therapists.

Internet Infidelity: A Multi-Phase Delphi Study

SUMMARY We used a multi-phase Delphi methodology to identify and explore critical issues, interventions, and gender differences in the treatment of Internet infidelity. We developed three representative vignettes related to Internet infidelity and asked twenty experts in extramarital affairs and/or sex addiction to respond to them, both through ratings and open-ended comments. We found little agreement among the experts. We discuss the unique features of Internet relationships, the areas of agreement and disagreement that we found among the experts, and the implications of our findings and the nature of Internet infidelity for both practice and training in marriage and family therapy.

From Family Symptom to Family System: Review of Family Therapy Research.

Abstract Recent empirical outcome literature on family therapy is reviewed with special attention to the link among presenting symptom, assessment of system dynamics and effective outcome. The authors recommend that future researchers include a focus on underlying system dynamics in addition to the more frequent focus on symptom. Finally, a research design is offered which links symptom via functional system consequence to family process and to therapy outcome.