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Marital Therapy, Retreats, and Books: The Who, What, When, and Why of Relationship Help‐Seeking
Author(s) -
Doss Brian D.,
Rhoades Galena K.,
Stanley Scott M.,
Markman Howard J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0606.2008.00093.x
Subject(s) - psychology , psychological intervention , marital therapy , marital relationship , social psychology , help seeking , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , mental health , psychiatry
When doubts creep in and marriages begin to falter, where do couples turn for assistance? In a longitudinal study of 213 couples over the first 5 years of marriage, results indicated relationship help‐seeking was relatively common, with 36% of couples seeking some form of outside help during this period. Individual and relationship difficulties predicted increased use of relationship books and marital therapy in the following year; therefore, these behaviors appear to be important outlets for relationship assistance. In contrast, attending marriage retreats/workshops was related only to demographic variables. Results of the present study suggest that the most common types of relationship help‐seeking by community couples are understudied and likely underutilized in the dissemination of empirically based marital interventions.