THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARRIAGE WITHIN THE EXTENDED FAMILY

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The immediate objective of this proposal is to establish an extensive educational and training program to foster the development of the Principal Investigator as an independent clinician/researcher in the psychosocial and interpersonal interaction field. Dr. David Reiss, Director of the Center for Family Research, and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University, will serve as sponsor for the duration of this training experience. The studies supported by this Physician Scientist Award will explore the extent to which and the mechanism whereby extended families influence the development and outcome of intimate relationships and represent the initial efforts of a long term program of research designed to develop prevention and intervention programs for martial distress or disruption. Specifically, using reliable and valid measures, the influence of similarity between the social orientation and culture of couples' families of origin (Family of Origin Similarity Study) and interpersonal distance from their families or origin (Family of Origin Distance Study) on relationship outcome will be assessed to identify those family level variables that have discriminative validity in predicting future marital distress. The predictive validity of these potential risk factors will be tested in a third study, the Family of Origin Risk Factor Study. It is expected that these studies and research subsequent to them will make a major contribution to the prevention of, and successful intervention in, marital distress and disruption.