Relationship Maintenance in Couple Therapy and Relationship Education

doi:10.1017/9781108304320.018

18 - Relationship Maintenance in Couple Therapy and Relationship Education

from Part IV - The Social Context of Relationship Maintenance

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2019

Amber Vennum ,

Jeremy B. Kanter and

Joyce Baptist

Edited by

Brian G. Ogolsky and

J. Kale Monk

Show author details

Brian G. Ogolsky: Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
J. Kale Monk: Affiliation:
University of Missouri

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Summary

In this chapter, we describe intervention efforts aimed at promoting maintenance behaviors in romantic relationships and the factors that influence these initiatives. We highlight current cultural forces surrounding clinical and educational practices, the definitions and theories that inform interventions to sustain and enhance partners’ maintenance behaviors, and important considerations for increasing the effectiveness of these interventions. The interventions featured in our review focus on enhancing positive aspects of relationships or mitigating threat to relationship maintenance processes within the cultural context of contemporary relationships. Suggestions for advancing the field include further research on the relevance of specific maintenance strategies and theories of change across the life course, the influence of cultural context and resilience on maintenance processes, unintended consequences of relationship maintenance interventions, and the evaluation process for interventions promoting maintenance behaviors.

Keywords

cognitive behavioral therapy insight- and principle-based approaches experiential and emotion-based approaches contextual influences of relationship maintenance enhancement of relationship maintenance strategies threat mitigation of maintenance processes companionate view

Type: Chapter
Information: Relationship Maintenance
Theory, Process, and Context
, pp. 339 - 366

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108304320.018 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2019

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18 - Relationship Maintenance in Couple Therapy and Relationship Education

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