Citation

Doss BD, Rhoades GK, Stanley SM, Markman HJ. J. Marital Fam. Ther. 2009; 35(1): 18-29.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1752-0606.2008.00093.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

When doubts creep in and marriages begin to falter, where do couples turn for assistance? In a longitudinal study of 213 couples over the first 5 years of marriage, results indicated relationship help-seeking was relatively common, with 36% of couples seeking some form of outside help during this period. Individual and relationship difficulties predicted increased use of relationship books and marital therapy in the following year; therefore, these behaviors appear to be important outlets for relationship assistance. In contrast, attending marriage retreats/workshops was related only to demographic variables. Results of the present study suggest that the most common types of relationship help-seeking by community couples are understudied and likely underutilized in the dissemination of empirically based marital interventions.