Individual mental health and couple functioning following couple relationship education participation: Exploring prospective cross‐lagged influences among changes

Abstract

Limited research on couple relationship education (CRE) programs explores the relationships among potential outcomes over time. This study conducted tests of processes of change in CRE participants’ mental health and couple functioning, based on previous evidence of concurrent benefit in these domains following CRE participation. Using a diverse sample of 926 men and women we first tested the stress generation model (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1991, 100(4), 555–561) assumptions that individual functioning influences relational functioning. We found support for immediate changes in mental health predicting changes in couple functioning 6 months later. However, a full cross‐lagged prospective model comparatively testing the stress generation model and the marital discord model (Depression in marriage: A model for etiology and treatment. Guilford, 1990), which emphasizes relational functioning impacts on individual well‐being over time, revealed the stronger directional link for both men and women was from immediate changes in couple functioning to later changes in individual mental health. Practical implications and future research directions are suggested.

Randomized controlled trial of the Marriage Checkup: Stress outcomes

“…In support of this assumption, randomized trials on relationship checkup models that reduced relationship distress did, with few exceptions (e.g., Halford et al, 2017 ), also find beneficial effects on measures of other aspects of individual mental health including mood or depressive symptoms (Gray et al, 2020 ; L. R. Miller et al, 2013 ), anxiety (Woodin & O'Leary, 2010 ), and global psychological distress (Halford et al, 2012 ). These findings are generally in line with conclusions from the broader field of couple intervention research, in which interventions aimed at reducing couple distress also improved individual mental health (Cooper et al, 2021 ; Proulx et al, 2007 ; Roddy, Rhoades, et al, 2020 ). However, and against the stress relief assumption, there are strikingly few published findings on individual perceived stress, specifically.…”

“…R. Miller et al, 2013), anxiety (Woodin & O'Leary, 2010), and global psychological distress (Halford et al, 2012). These findings are generally in line with conclusions from the broader field of couple intervention research, in which interventions aimed at reducing couple distress also improved individual mental health (Cooper et al, 2021;Proulx et al, 2007;Roddy, Rhoades, et al, 2020). However, and against the stress relief assumption, there are strikingly few published findings on individual perceived stress, specifically.…”

Examining quality time as a mediator of dyadic change in a randomized controlled trial of relationship education for low‐income couples

“…Additionally, it is possible that learning new skills, as well as hearing from other couples’ experiences may contribute to greater hope about the future of the couple relationship (e.g., Hawkins et al, 2017). Our results demonstrate the potential value of couples having dedicated time spent together to focus on their relationship, and these results add to the growing body of scholarship examining factors that contribute to positive couple outcomes (Barton et al, 2017; Cooper et al, 2021; Le et al, 2020).…”

“…Findings from RE outcome studies consistently indicate positive effects for couples on domains such as communication (Barton et al, 2017;Le et al, 2020), couple conflict (Hsueh et al, 2012), parenting (Carlson, Barden, et al, 2014), and mental health (Carlson et al, 2017;Cooper et al, 2021;Roddy et al, 2020). The size of the program effects has varied from small to large for couples, and many of those effects were maintained at follow-up (Arnold & Beelmann, 2018;Carlson et al, 2021;Doss et al, 2020;Hawkins & Erickson, 2014;McGill et al, 2020).…”

“…Furthermore, Cooper et al (2021) examined the relationship between individual functioning and relationship functioning for 926 couples randomly assigned to receive ELEVATE, a relationship education curriculum that also includes an emphasis on self-care. They found that immediate changes in couple functioning directly influenced later changes to individual mental health, such that more positive immediate changes to couple functioning mediated positive changes to later mental health.…”