Indicated prevention for longer married couples - Efficacy of a compact group program

The efficacy of cognitive behavioral marital therapy for distressed couples and of prevention programs for couples planning marriage has been convinci ngly proven. However, there is a lack of indicated prevention programs fbr married couples who do not seek marital therapy although they are subjectiv ely concerned about their deteriorating marriage. In this study the efficac y of a compact psychoeducational group prevention program (EPL II) was inve stigated in a randomized controlled study with 67 couples. The couples were recruited by newspaper announcements, then randomly assigned to the EPL-II prevention program or to awaiting-list control group. The EPL II lasts 16 hours and is carried out by 2 trainers on a weekend. It consists of communi cation and problem-solving training, discussions of the couples to clarify- their relationship expectations, and an excercise to enhance their sensual/ sexual relationship. At postassessment 15 weeks after the training, EPL-II couples showed more positive verbal and nonverbal communication behavior du ring a conflict discussion task than control couples, who reported signific antly more relationship problem areas and displayed more negative communica tion behavior. At the 1-year follow-up, EPL-II couples reported fewer probl em areas in comparison to the preassessment.