The Marriage Checkup: a preventative & intermediary step

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The Marriage Checkupa preventative
intermediary step

• Presented by
• Steve Stutzman, M.S.
• Triston Morgan, M.S.
• Benjamin Erwin, M.Ed.

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Disclaimer

• During this presentation, we will be using the
  generic word of marriage. This symbolizes all
  forms of relationships, e.g. heterosexual,
  homosexual, married, cohabitating, etc. We use
  the word marriage to stay congruent with the name
  of the intervention Marriage Checkup and the
  existing literature.

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What do you want to know?
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Overview of Marriage

• Marriage (Relationships) is at the heart of every
  society culture.
• Bowlby (1988) calls this desire to be with
  someone an innate need that follows us from the
  cradle to the grave.
• However, marital distress is most likely
  experienced in every marriage.
• This is demonstrated by the statistic that 40 to
  50 of all first marriages will end in divorce.

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So what? What does that have to do with EAPS?

• Marital Distress has been shown to be linked to
• Psychological functioning--higher levels of
  depression (Fincham Beach, 1999).
• Physical health--somaticization blood pressure,
  cholesterol, heart disease, cancer, immune
  cardiovascular systems (Keicolt-Glaser, 2003).
• Occupational Satisfaction--you do worse at your
  job (Rogers May, 2003).
• Most couples will not seek help!

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What is the Marriage Checkup?

• We go to a family doctor for a physical to find
  out if anything is wrong.
• The Marriage Checkup follows the same premise
  Couples can go to a professional to get an
  evaluation of the strengths and areas of
  improvement for their marriage.

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How to conduct the MC

• The Marriage checkup (MC) is a brief 2 to 3
  session assessment and feedback.
• Advertise the MC to your target population.
• Session 1 Conduct an Oral History Interview
  (Krokoff, 1984) and observe their communication
  style (CACQ Mead, Vatcher, Wyne, Roberts,
  1990).
• Provide the Couple with an assessment battery.
• Session 2 Give the couple feedback.

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Assessment Battery

• Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Busby et al,
  1995) to measure global marital satisfaction.
• Marital Status Inventory (Weiss Cerreto, 1980)
  to assess for divorce potential.
• Brief Screen for Depression (Hakstian, McLean,
  1989) to assess for depression.
• The Revised Conflicts Tactic Scale (Straus,
  Hamby, McCoy Sugarman, 1996) to assess for
  domestic violence and conflict resolution styles.
  
• Alcohol Use Identification Test (Saunders,
  Aasland, Babor, Fuente Grant, 1993) to screen
  for alcoholism.

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Review of the Instruments
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Empirical Findings

• The Literature shows three uses of the MC
• First, participating in the MC reduces levels of
  marital distress (Cordova et al. 2005).
• Second, the MC appears to be less threatening for
  couples (Erwin et al. 2005). Therefore, couples
  who are distressed, but who are not seeking
  therapy will more easily respond to the MC in
  order to get help.
• Third, there is a high percentage of couples who
  transition from the MC into martial therapy
  (Erwin et al. 2005).

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MC Lowers Distress Over Time

• Two studies have shown that participating in the
  MC statistically lowered levels of marital
  distress (Cordova, Warren, Gee, 2001 Cordova,
  Scott Dorian, 2005)
• These gains were maintained at a two year follow
  up (Gee, Scott, Castellani Cordova, 2002).

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The MC is Safer for Couples

• 71 of couples who participated in the MC were
  not clinically distressed compared to only 25
  of couples who sought marital therapy.
• 62.5 of couples who participated in the MC
  transitioned into marital therapy for an average
  of an 8.8 sessions.
• Thus the MC helps couples overcome barriers to
  seek treatment.
• (Erwin, Doss, Frost, Oka Mead, In preparation)

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Summary

• Marital distress has been shown to negatively
  impact physical mental health as well as
  occupational satisfaction.
• The MC is brief, easy to administer, and
  empirically validated.
• The MC has been shown to lower marital distress.
• The MC also been shown to help overcome barriers
  for seeking treatment.

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For more information

• Benjamin Erwin
• benjamin_erwin_at_yahoo.com