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  • Title: Marital status and satisfaction five years following a randomized clinical trial comparing traditional versus integrative behavioral couple therapy.
    Author: Christensen A, Atkins DC, Baucom B, Yi J.
    Journal: J Consult Clin Psychol; 2010 Apr; 78(2):225-35. PubMed ID: 20350033.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVE: To follow distressed married couples for 5 years after their participation in a randomized clinical trial. METHOD: A total of 134 chronically and seriously distressed married couples were randomly assigned to approximately 8 months of either traditional behavioral couple therapy (TBCT; Jacobson & Margolin, 1979) or integrative behavioral couple therapy (IBCT; Jacobson & Christensen, 1998). Marital status and satisfaction were assessed approximately every 3 months during treatment and every 6 months for 5 years after treatment. RESULTS: Pre- to posttreatment effect sizes on marital satisfaction were d = 0.90 for IBCT and d = 0.71 for TBCT, which were not significantly different. However, data through 2-year follow-ups revealed statistically significant superiority of IBCT over TBCT in relationship satisfaction, but subsequent data showed increasing similarity and nonsignificant differences in outcome. At 5-year follow-up for marital satisfaction relative to pretreatment, effect sizes were d = 1.03 for IBCT and d = 0.92 for TBCT; 50.0% of IBCT couples and 45.9% of TBCT couples showed clinically significant improvement. Relationship status, obtained on all 134 couples, revealed that 25.7% of IBCT couples and 27.9% of TBCT couples were separated or divorced. These follow-up data compared favorably to other, long-term results of couple therapy. CONCLUSION: TBCT and IBCT both produced substantial effect sizes in even seriously and chronically distressed couples. IBCT produced significantly but not dramatically superior outcomes through the first 2 years after treatment termination but without further intervention; outcomes for the 2 treatments converged over longer follow-up periods.
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