Peter Hilpert

Enhancement of couples' communication and dyadic coping by a self-directed approach: a randomized controlled trial.

Although prevention of relationship distress and dissolution has potential to strengthen the well-being of partners and any children they are raising, dissemination of prevention programs can be limited because couples face many barriers to in-person participation. An alternative strategy, providing couples with an instructional DVD, is tested in the present study, in which 330 Caucasian couples (N = 660 participants; mean age: men 41.4 years, women 40.0 years) were randomly assigned to a DVD group without any further support, a DVD group with technical telephone coaching, or a wait-list control group. Couples completed questionnaires at pretest, posttest, and 3 and 6 months after completion of the intervention. Self-report measures of dyadic coping, communication quality, ineffective arguing, and relationship satisfaction were used to test whether the intervention groups improved in comparison with the control group. Women in both intervention groups increased in dyadic coping, reduced conflict behavior, and were more satisfied with their relationship 6 months after the intervention. Effects for men were mixed. Participants with poorer skills reported stronger improvement. Intimate relationships can, within limits, be positively influenced by a self-directed approach. Effective dissemination of principles underlying successful relationships can be facilitated through the use of emerging low-cost tools and technologies.

Longitudinal Evaluation of Sexual Function in a Cohort of Pre‐ and Postmenopausal Women

INTRODUCTION Aspects of womens sexual functioning that have received relatively little attention are its stability and how changes in the different sexual response domains influence each other over time. AIM The aim of this study was to describe the changes and to evaluate the stability of self-reported sexual functioning over a 4-year period in a population sample of British women. METHODS A 4-year follow-up study on N = 507 women, including 178 pre- and 329 postmenopausal women, was conducted. The validated Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) was applied. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE A multigroup path analytical model was used to examine autoregressive effects (the effect of a domain on itself at a later point in time) and cross-lag effects (one variable affecting another variable at a later point in time) across all FSFI domains of sexual functioning between pre- and postmenopausal women. RESULTS Overall, the proportion of postmenopausal women suffering from a sexual dysfunction at measurement point 1 (T1) was higher compared with premenopausal women (pre: 34.3% vs. post: 14.5%). However, both groups showed a comparable number of women developing a sexual problem (pre: 22.2% vs. post: 23.2%) or improving their sexual functioning (7.4% vs. 7.6%) after the 4 years. Furthermore, path model analyses revealed that each domain at T1 significantly predicted its level 4 years later (βs ranging from 0.33 for arousal to 0.57 for lubrication), with the exception of sexual satisfaction. In terms of cross-lag effects, the changes in all domains except for pain were predicted either by levels of desire, arousal, or orgasm at T1 (βs ranging from 0.18 to 0.36) in both groups. CONCLUSIONS Womens sexual functioning was moderately stable across the 4 years. The main predictors of changes in sexual functioning and satisfaction were desire and arousal, highlighting their role as possible key players in womens sexual health.

Immediate Effect of Couple Relationship Education on Low-Satisfaction Couples: A Randomized Clinical Trial Plus an Uncontrolled Trial Replication

Couple relationship education (RE) usually is conceived of as relationship enhancement for currently satisfied couples, with a goal of helping couples sustain satisfaction. However, RE also might be useful as a brief, accessible intervention for couples with low satisfaction. Two studies were conducted that tested whether couples with low relationship satisfaction show meaningful gains after RE. Study 1 was a three-condition randomized controlled trial in which 182 couples were randomly assigned to RELATE with Couple CARE (RCC), a flexible delivery education program for couples, or one of two control conditions. Couples with initially low satisfaction receiving RCC showed a moderate increase in relationship satisfaction (d=0.50) relative to the control. In contrast, couples initially high in satisfaction showed little change and there was no difference between RCC and the control conditions. Study 2 was an uncontrolled trial of the Couple Coping Enhancement Training (CCET) administered to 119 couples. Couples receiving CCET that had initially low satisfaction showed a moderate increase in satisfaction (g=.44), whereas initially highly satisfied couples showed no change. Brief relationship education can assist somewhat distressed couples to enhance satisfaction, and has potential as a cost-effective way of enhancing the reach of couple interventions.

Predicting relationship satisfaction in distressed and non-distressed couples based on a stratified sample: a matter of conflict, positivity, or support?

Spousal interactions are key predictors of relationship satisfaction in couples, but it is not yet sufficiently clear as to which aspect of spousal interactions matters most. In this study, three forms of interactions are examined to disentangle their unique associations with relationship satisfaction. Altogether, 1944 married individuals completed questionnaires in a cross-sectional study. Self-report measures of relationship external stress, negative interactions (NIs), positive interactions (PIs), dyadic coping (DC), and relationship satisfaction were assessed. A multigroup path analytical mediation model was used to test whether couple interactions mediate the association between stress and relationship satisfaction. Stress stemming from outside the relationship is highly associated with an increase in NIs and a decrease in DC. Although all interactions covaried significantly with relationship satisfaction, DC outperformed PI and NI. Being supported by the partner in times of need (i.e. after experiencing relationship external stress) seems to be particularly relevant for marital quality.

Preferred Interpersonal Distances: A Global Comparison

Human spatial behavior has been the focus of hundreds of previous research studies. However, the conclusions and generalizability of previous studies on interpersonal distance preferences were limited by some important methodological and sampling issues. The objective of the present study was to compare preferred interpersonal distances across the world and to overcome the problems observed in previous studies. We present an extensive analysis of interpersonal distances over a large data set (N = 8,943 participants from 42 countries). We attempted to relate the preferred social, personal, and intimate distances observed in each country to a set of individual characteristics of the participants, and some attributes of their cultures. Our study indicates that individual characteristics (age and gender) influence interpersonal space preferences and that some variation in results can be explained by temperature in a given region. We also present objective values of preferred interpersonal distances in different regions, which might be used as a reference data point in future studies.

Childhood trauma and resilience in old age: applying a context model of resilience to a sample of former indentured child laborers

Objectives: Psychological resilience has been rarely investigated in elderly populations. We applied a more comprehensive model of trauma-specific coping and resilience, which included Ungars context model and included decentral factors of resilience (i.e., environments that provide resources to build resilience). Method: We assessed resilience in a cohort of former Swiss indentured child laborers (N = 74; 59% males) at two time points; first at the mean age of 80 years and then again 20 months later. At each time point, the following measures of resilience were assessed: resilience indicators of life satisfaction and lack of depression. In addition, resilience predictors of trauma exposure, perceived social support, dysfunctional disclosure of traumatic experiences, social acknowledgment as a victim, and self-efficacy; and decentral resilience factors of education, income, number of children, and physical health were measured. Results: Using path-analysis, we found that life satisfaction and lack of depression were predicted by dysfunctional disclosure, social support, and self-efficacy at various significance levels. Change scores of resilience were predicted by higher trauma exposure, social acknowledgment as a victim, and an interaction between the two. The model for decentral factors also fitted, with physical health and income predicting the resilience indicators. Conclusion: Applying this comprehensive resilience model in a sample of older adults revealed meaningful findings in predicting resilience at a single time point and over time. Atypical coping strategies, such as perceived social acknowledgment as a victim and disclosure, may be particularly important for former victims who have suffered institutional abuse.

Dyadic coping mediates the association of sanctification with marital satisfaction and well-being.

Some studies suggest that the sanctification of marriage, or considering marriage sacred, is related to positive marital outcomes (e.g., marital satisfaction, conflict resolution). However, the mechanisms explaining this association have not been sufficiently investigated. In the current study, we analyzed supportive dyadic coping as a potential mediator of the relation between marriage sanctity and marital satisfaction, as well as between marriage sanctity and well-being. Self-reported data were collected from 215 Romanian couples (N = 430) belonging to the Christian Orthodox religion. Analyses using the common fate model indicate that supportive dyadic coping mediates both the relation between sanctification and marital satisfaction, as well as the relation between sanctification and well-being. These findings suggest that sanctification increases support provided to the partner, which in turn is positively related to marital satisfaction and well-being at the dyadic level.

Dyadic Coping in an Eastern European Context: Validity and Measurement Invariance of the Romanian Version of Dyadic Coping Inventory.

This study investigates the psychometric properties of the Romanian version of the Dyadic Coping Inventory with data from 510 married couples. The results confirm the theoretical factorial structure of the Dyadic Coping Inventory for both partners, indicating convergent validity, discriminate validity, and measurement invariance (across genders and across cultures).

Comparing simultaneously the effects of extra-dyadic and intra-dyadic experiences on relationship outcomes

This study simultaneously examines everyday negative and positive experiences that affect persons either outside of the intimate relationship (extra-dyadic) or within (intra-dyadic). In addition, we investigate whether the partner’s responses to each of these experiences mediate the link between experience and relationship outcomes. Altogether, 447 individuals who were currently in a relationship filled out an online questionnaire. Self-report measures included extra- and intra-dyadic everyday experiences of negative and positive events as well as corresponding partner responses and relationship satisfaction. Multigroup path analyses revealed that both negative and positive extra-dyadic experiences affect negative and positive intra-dyadic experiences of women, whereas the effects of positive extra-dyadic experiences had mixed effects for men. Furthermore, the perceived partner responses in each of the four experiences were found to be an important predictor with one exception for men’s intra-dyadic positive experiences.

Exploring symptoms of somatization in chronic widespread pain: latent class analysis and the role of personality

Chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain (CWP) is a condition manifesting varied co-symptomatology and considerable heterogeneity in symptom profiles. This poses an obstacle for disease definition and effective treatment. Latent class analysis (LCA) provides an opportunity to find subtypes of cases in multivariate data. In this study, LCA was used to investigate whether and how individuals with CWP could be classified according to 12 additional somatic symptoms (migraine headaches, insomnia, stiffness, etc.). In a second step, the role of psychological and coping factors for the severity of these co-symptoms was investigated. Data were available for a total of N = 3,057 individuals (mean age = 56.6 years), with 15.4% suffering from CWP. In the latter group, LCA resulted in a three-class solution (ngroup1 = 123; ngroup2 = 306; ngroup3 = 43) with groups differing in a graded fashion (i.e., severity) rather than qualitatively for somatic co-symptom endorsements. A consistent picture emerged, with individuals in the first group reporting the lowest scores and individuals in group 3 reporting the highest. Additionally, more co-symptomatology was associated with higher rates of anxiety sensitivity and depression, as well as more extraversion and emotional instability. No group differences for any of the coping strategies could be identified. The findings suggest that CWP has several detectable subtypes with distinct psychological correlates. The identification of CWP subgroups is important for understanding disease mechanisms and refining prognosis as well as stratifying patients in clinical trials and targeting specific treatment at the subgroups most likely to respond.