Factors Associated with Success or Failure in Marital Counseling

TLDR: In this paper, a survey of couples who had received counseling for marital conflict at a community mental health clinic was conducted from one to three years following the end of their treatment, and the questionnaires were analyzed with a view to discovering the relative importance of various potential marital conflict areas.

Abstract: Forty-one married couples who had received counseling for marital conflict at a community mental health clinic were surveyed from one to three years following the end of their treatment. The sample was divided into an improved and unimproved group compared for difference in terms of a number of biographical and treatment factors. Results failed to support a number of previous findings and common views as to the factors which influence the success of marriage counseling. In addition, the questionnaires were analysed with a view to discovering the relative importance of various potential marital conflict areas. With the possible exception of a new born infant, no human being rates himself an amateur when it comes to considering the whys and wherefores of interpersonal relations. Everybody seems to have opinions, and usually strong ones, about how to get along with others, about how, in short, to "handle" others. These opinions are based on personal experience rather than on systematic study of the factors related to satisfactory interpersonal relations. In this respect, professionally trained counselors can hardly be distinguished from their amateur counterparts. In no field can this be better illustrated