James V. Cordova

Integrative behavioral couple therapy: An acceptance-based, promising new treatment for couple discord.

Although traditional behavioral couple therapy (TBCT) has garnered the most empirical support of any marital treatment, concerns have been raised about both its durability and clinical significance. Integrative behavioral couple therapy (IBCT) was designed to address some of these limitations by combining strategies for fostering emotional acceptance with the change-oriented strategies of TBCT. Results of a preliminary clinical trial, in which 21 couples were randomly assigned to TBCT or IBCT, indicated that therapists could keep the 2 treatments distinct, that both husbands and wives receiving IBCT evidenced greater increases in marital satisfaction than couples receiving TBCT, and that IBCT resulted in a greater percentage of couples who either improved or recovered on the basis of clinical significance data. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that IBCT is a promising new treatment for couple discord.

Intimacy: A behavioral interpretation.

This paper proposes that intimacy is a process that emerges from a sequence of events in which behavior vulnerable to interpersonal punishment is reinforced by the response of another person. These intimate events result in an increase in the probability of behavior vulnerable to interpersonal punishment in the presence of the reinforcing partner. The process results in intimate partnership formation and reports of feeling intimate. In addition to positing an operant process integrating the various components of intimacy, the theory also posits that the punishment of interpersonally vulnerable behavior is an integral aspect of intimate partnership formation and that intimate partnerships can develop that reinforce behavior that may be destructive both to the individual and to others.

The influence of adult attachment styles on the association between marital adjustment and depressive symptoms

This study tested the hypothesis that attachment styles moderate the relationship between marital adjustment and depressive symptoms among husbands and wives. In a sample of 91 married couples, ratings of the anxious-ambivalent attachment style moderated the relationship between marital adjustment and depressive symptoms for both husbands and wives. Additionally, ratings of the secure attachment style moderated the relationship between marital adjustment and depressive symptoms for wives, with a trend for husbands. These findings suggest a relationship between insecurity and a predisposition to depressive symptoms in marital relationships.

The marriage checkup: An indicated preventive intervention for treatment-avoidant couples at risk for marital deterioration

Abstract Prior to dissolution, it is likely that couples that become severely distressed first pass through an at-risk stage in which they experience early symptoms of marital deterioration but have not yet suffered irreversible damage to their marriage. It is during this “at-risk” stage when couples might benefit most from early intervention. In response to this need we have developed an indicated intervention program called the Marriage Checkup (MC) based on the principles of motivational interviewing. The current randomized study provides preliminary evidence for the attractiveness, tolerability, efficacy, and mechanisms of change of the MC.

Pathways Between Marriage and Parenting for Wives and Husbands: The Role of Coparenting

As family systems research has expanded, so have investigations into how marital partners coparent together. Although coparenting research has increasingly found support for the influential role of coparenting on both marital relationships and parenting practices, coparenting has traditionally been investigated as part of an indirect system which begins with marital health, is mediated by coparenting processes, and then culminates in each partners parenting. The field has not tested how this traditional model compares with the equally plausible alternative model, in which coparenting simultaneously predicts both marital relationships and parenting practices. Furthermore, statistical and practical limitations have typically resulted in only one parent being analyzed in these models. This study used model-fitting analyses to include both wives and husbands in a test of these two alternative models of the role of coparenting in the family system. Our data suggested that both the traditional indirect model (marital health to coparenting to parenting practices), and the alternative predictor model where coparenting alliance directly and simultaneously predicts marital health and parenting practices, fit for both spouses. This suggests that dynamic and multiple roles may be played by coparenting in the overall family system, and raises important practical implications for family clinicians.

Domains of Masculine Gender Role Stress and Intimate Partner Violence in a Clinical Sample of Violent Men

This study investigated the relationship between the specific factors of the Masculine Gender Role Stress (MGRS) scale and intimate partner violence among a clinical sample of violent men. Participants were 339 men court-mandated to attend violence intervention programs. After demonstrating that the 5-factor MGRS model evidenced strong fit in this sample, analyses revealed that MGRS total scores were associated with each form of intimate partner violence perpetration. However, subsequent analyses that regressed each form of aggression onto all 5 MGRS factors simultaneously revealed that different factors were responsible for each association. Specifically, gender role stress regarding failure to perform in work and sexual domains was the only factor associated with psychological aggression, gender role stress regarding appearing physically fit and not appearing feminine was the only factor associated with sexual coercion, and gender role stress regarding intellectual inferiority was the only factor associated with injury to partners. No single MGRS factor was uniquely associated with physical aggression. Implications are discussed in terms of the importance of examining specific domains of gender role stress when studying and treating partner violence.

The Marriage Checkup: A randomized controlled trial of annual relationship health checkups

OBJECTIVE This study assessed the efficacy of the Marriage Checkup (MC) for improving relationship health and intimacy. METHOD Cohabiting married couples (N = 215, Mage women = 44.5 years, men = 47 years, 93.1% Caucasian) recruited from a northeastern U.S. metropolitan area through print and electronic media were randomly assigned to MC treatment or wait-list control. Treatment but not control couples participated in assessment and feedback visits, at the beginning of the study and again 1 year later. All couples completed 9 sets of questionnaires over 2 years. Outcome measures included the Quality of Marriage Index, the Global Distress subscale of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised, the Intimate Safety Questionnaire, and the Relational Acceptance Questionnaire. RESULTS A latent growth curve model indicated significant between-group differences in intimacy at every measurement point after baseline (d ranged from .20 to .55, Md = .37), significant between-group differences in womens felt acceptance for every measurement point after baseline (d ranged from .17 to .47, Md = .34), significant between-group differences in mens felt acceptance through the 1-year 2-week follow-up (d across follow-up ranged from .11 to .40, Md = .25), and significant between-group differences in relationship distress through 1-year 6-month follow-up (d across follow-up ranged from .11 to .39, Md = .23). CONCLUSIONS Longitudinal analysis of the MC supports the hypothesis that the MC significantly improves intimacy, acceptance, and satisfaction. Implications for dissemination are discussed.

Acceptance in behavior therapy: Understanding the process of change.

Acceptance is integral to several cutting-edge behavior therapies. However, several questions about acceptance remain to be clearly answered. First, what does acceptance look like, and can it be observed and measured? Second, what are the behavioral principles involved in the promotion of acceptance? Third, when is acceptance indicated or contraindicated as a therapeutic goal? The current paper attempts to clarify answers to these questions. The goal is to provide a conceptualization of the what, how, and when of acceptance that is accessible to behavior analysts, both to promote our understanding of acceptance as a behavioral phenomenon and to facilitate its empirical study and therapeutic utility.

The Marriage Checkup: Increasing Access to Marital Health Care

Despite the ongoing prevalence of marital distress, very few couples seek therapy. Researchers and clinicians have increasingly been calling for innovative interventions that can reach a larger number of untreated couples. Based on a motivational marital health model, the Marriage Checkup (MC) was designed to attract couples who are unlikely to seek traditional tertiary therapy. The objective of the MC is to promote marital health for as broad a population of couples as possible, much like regular physical health checkups. This first paper from the largest MC study to date examines whether the MC engaged previously unreached couples who might benefit from intervention. Interview and survey data suggested that the MC attracted couples across the distress continuum and was perceived by couples as more accessible than traditional therapy. Notably, the MC attracted a substantial number of couples who had not previously participated in marital interventions. The motivational health checkup model appeared to encourage a broad range of couples who might not have otherwise sought relationship services to deliberately take care of their marital health. Clinical implications are discussed.

Domains of masculine gender role stress and intimate partner violence in a clinical sample of violent men

This reprinted article originally appeared in Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 2008, Vol. 9, (No. 2), 82–89. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2008-04235-003). This study investigated the relationship between the specific factors of the Masculine Gender Role Stress (MGRS) scale and intimate partner violence among a clinical sample of violent men. Participants were 339 men court-mandated to attend violence intervention programs. After demonstrating that the 5-factor MGRS model evidenced strong fit in this sample, analyses revealed that MGRS total scores were associated with each form of intimate partner violence perpetration. However, subsequent analyses that regressed each form of aggression onto all 5 MGRS factors simultaneously revealed that different factors were responsible for each association. Specifically, gender role stress regarding failure to perform in work and sexual domains was the only factor associated with psychological aggression, gender role stress regarding appearing physically fit and not appearing feminine was the only factor associated with sexual coercion, and gender role stress regarding intellectual inferiority was the only factor associated with injury to partners. No single MGRS factor was uniquely associated with physical aggression. Implications are discussed in terms of the importance of examining specific domains of gender role stress when studying and treating partner violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)