Motivating Couples for Therapy

婚姻不满意是一个重大问题，对精神、身体和家庭健康产生影响，并与离婚和虐待配偶等后果有关。在一般人群中，大约20%的夫妇在特定时间经历了临床水平的婚姻不满。有有效的治疗夫妇不满;然而，许多夫妇谁可能受益于治疗没有收到它。我建议开发和测试一个简短的干预（婚姻动机访谈; MMI），旨在增加夫妇的动机，和实际使用，夫妇在社区资源（即，婚姻治疗）。MMI将针对那些目前没有接受婚姻不满治疗的苦恼夫妇。在开发MMI，我将整合现有的文献婚姻不和谐的动机访谈干预措施中使用的策略。在奖学金的前6个月，我将开发和手动干预。在剩下的18个月的研究中，我将进行一项初步的随机临床试验，将接受MMI的一组与等待名单上的对照组进行比较。干预三个月后，我预计MMI组将表现出a）改变他们关系的动机增加; B）关系效能增加（即，相信一个人和一个人的伴侣可以解决未来的关系问题）和c）增加使用夫妇治疗。

Marital dissatisfaction is a significant problem, with repercussions for mental, physical, and family health, and associations with outcomes such as divorce and spousal abuse. Approximately 20% of couples in the general population experience clinical levels of marital dissatisfaction at a given time. There are effective treatments for couple dissatisfaction; however, many couples who might benefit from treatment do not receive it. I propose to develop and test a brief intervention (marital motivational interviewing; MMI) designed to increase couples' motivation for, and actual use of, couples resources in the community (i.e., marital therapy). MMI will be targeted at distressed couples who are not currently receiving treatment for marital dissatisfaction. In developing MMI, I will integrate existing literature on marital discord with strategies used in motivational interviewing interventions. In the first 6 months of the fellowship, I will develop and manualize the intervention. In the remaining 18 months of the fellowship, I will conduct a pilot randomized clinical trial, comparing a group receiving MMI to a wait- list control group. Three months following the intervention, I expect that the MMI group will show a) increased motivation for making changes in their relationship; b) increased relationship efficacy (i.e., the belief that one and one's partner can solve future relationship problems) and c) increased use of couples therapy.