Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Target audiences include the community of marriage and famliy professionals who provide services (therapy or relationship (family life) education) to families of all types in the United States. The other target audience is comprised of individuals in the general public who find themselves on the brink of divorce. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? I continue to find broad support for my work in this area and have found that my partnerships have been opening opportunites for more projects and possible external funding to continue this research agenda. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results have been distributed in some circles but that circulation is currently limited to those who receive discernment counseling training. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Secured a book deal with APA to describe the Discernment Counseling protocol. Secured funding (seed money - internal @ BYU) with colleague, Alan Hawkins at Brigham Young University, to do a large scale study of people on the brink of divorce to assess their thinking and decision making about divorce. Working with partners at BYU, University of Missouri, Universisty of North Texas, and Montanna State Univeristy to track these couples longitudinaly. Secured foundation (Bradley Foundation - Milwaukee, WI) funds to do program evaluation on the "Marital First Responders" project. This project trains people in the general public who exist within natuarlly occuring social networks on how to respond to people who confide in them about marital problems.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Schramm, D. G., Harris, S. M., Whiting, J. B., Hawkins, A. J., Brown, M., & Porter, R. (2013). Economic Costs and Policy Implications Associated with Divorce: Texas as a Case Study. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 54, 1-24. DOI: 10.1080/10502556.2012.725354
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Progress 01/01/13 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: There are two main target audiences for this research. One is a community of Marriage and Family Therapy professionals who provide clinical services to couples who are deciding about the future of their relationship. The second audience for this research are couples who are in the divorce/marriage reconciliation decision making process. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The lead PI has provided training in the area of martial reconciliation to two different graduate students and one undergraduate student during 2013. All were given an opportunity to assist with project development and implementation. The undergraduate student was also given the opportunity to collect raw data and to transcribe clinical session material for later analysis. The lead PI has also conducted a number of training sessions in the "Discernment Counseling" protocol as his role with the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project coincides and dovetails nicely with this AES project. Aproximatley 240 individuals were trained throughout the year. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Presentations have occured in university settings (Utah), at state-level professional association meetings (Alabama), at a national conference (The American Assocaition of Marriage and Family Therapy - Portland, Oregon), and with private counseling agencies (Georgia). Each presentation was made to an audience of practitioners who will take the discernment counseling protocol to their own practice settings. An article on marital decision making was submitted and accepted for publication to the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. It will be in print in 2014. JMFT has a readership of about 50,000 people. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue to seek out and find individuals who are considering divorce and interview them about their decision making process.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The lead researcher and his associate completed a project of interviewing women who had considered divorce but decided to remain married. We were able to discover the role couple therapy played in their decision making as well as other variables/characteristics of coming close to divorce but ultimately deciding to reconcile. The findings confirmed what has been known in the literature as well as added depth to our clinical understanding of the role of couple therapy in helping couples decide a reconciliation path in their marriages when divorce is on the table. We also have been working with a community data set, from family court records, to locate couples who have filed for divorce during the economic downturn of 2008 and are still on record as being married. We are intersted in knowing the status of these marriages. We have secured IRB approval to interview couples and have begun the process of locating them. Many on our list have since secured the divorce and we are still in the process of locating and interviewing others who are still married. This has been slow going and it has been difficult to reconcile court records and other public documents with the acutal relationship status of these individuals.
Publications
- Type:
Books
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Hawkins, A.J., Fackrell, T.A., Harris, S. M. (2013) Should I try to work it out?: A guidebook for couples at the crossroads of divorce. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Kanewischer, E.J.W, & Harris, S.M. (in press). Deciding not to undo the I do": Therapy experiences of women who consider divorce but decide to remain married. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Provided four different trainings on Discernment Counseling, a couple therapy protocol for assisting those who are considering divorce but want to know if a possible reconciliation is possible. Presentations occurred in Alabama (120 participants), Utah (40 participants), Oregon (50 participants) and Georgia (32 participants).
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Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Three main outputs have occurred during this year. (1) In conjunction with the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project (Dr. William J. Doherty - University of Minnesota) a free 8-hour training on the topic of "Discernment Counseling" was offered to mental health professionals in the Twin Cities area. The training was held on the U of M campus in McNeal Hall and approximately 80 people attended the training. Discernment counseling is a new counseling protocol that we are pioneering. It is designed to engage married couples where the individuals in the couple have different agendas with regard to the dissolution of the marriage. It offers couples a new way of looking at all options available with emphasis placed on restoring health to the relationship, if possible, through an in-depth and carefully guided reconciliation process. (2) With a current graduate student in Family Social Science, Erica Kanewischer, we presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (Charlotte, NC - Sept) the results of a research project designed to shed light on what was helpful in marital therapy for women who were considering divorce but ultimately decided to stay in their marriages. Several hundred people reviewed the research presented in poster format. Both Erica and Dr. Harris engaged conference attendees in conversations about relational decision making topics. Erica won a competitive award for her research proposal from the hosting organization. (3) With Dr. William Doherty, we presented on the topic of Discernment Counseling to an audience of about 70 people at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (Charlotte, NC - Sept). This was a day-long institute and each attendee was exposed to the same training offered in the Twin Cities earlier in June 2012. PARTICIPANTS: Co-Authors, Co-Presenters, and Consultants Erica Kanewischer - Graduate Student in Family Social Science - U of M William J. Doherty - Professor Family Social Science - U of M Bridget Manley Mayer - Project Coordinator, Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project David Schramm, Ph.D., Assistant Professor - University of Missouri- Columbia Jason Whiting, Ph.D., Associate Professor - Texas Tech University Alan Hawkins, Ph.D., Professor - Brigham Young University Jennifer Sampson - Graduate Student in Family Social Science Katherine Wickel - Graduate Student in Family Social Science Robert Porter, Ph.D., - Private Practice, Austin Texas Jason Whiting, Ph.D., - Texas Tech University Matthew Brown, Ph.D., Texas Tech University Undergraduate Students (research assistants from the U of M) Shauna Fenske Shelise Decal Samantha Robson TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience for the majority of the work I have been doing is clinical practitioners of marriage and family therapy, marriage counselors, and other stakeholders concerned with discovering options to help couples at the crossroads of divorce. Other potential audiences include academics interested in studying divorce and relational decision making. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project: Part of Dr. Harris's time is spent working with Dr. William J. Doherty on this project. Dr. Harris has brought program evaluation skills and technological support to the project. The main product developed during this past year for this project is an instructional DVD that shows a couple undergo the process of Discernment Counseling. It is anticipated that this DVD will help to train clinicians in the Discernment Counseling protocol at both the basic and advanced levels. The DVD has been used in both trainings mentioned above. Feedback from those who attended the trainings indicated that the video was helpful in illustrating the protocol. Additional feedback about the trainings in general indicated that the majority of respondents saw the benefit of adding Discernment Counseling principles to their clinical repertoire. Some who attended the basic training indicated their desire to receive additional training in the future. This will be one of the Project goals for the coming year; to train more clinicians at the advanced level so they can, in turn, train others in their communities at the basic level. AES funds were used in the summer to support travel for Dr. Harris to meet with colleagues at Brigham Young University (Dr. Alan Hawkins) who also engages in research on marital reconciliation and relational decision making. Planning with Dr. Hawkins included laying the ground work for a study on how the recession of 2008 impacted divorce decision making. This study will begin in October of 2012 and continue throughout the remainder of the coming year. Four primary publications were accepted for publication during this year of the project: Schramm, D.G., Harris, S.M, Whiting, J. B., Porter, R., Brown, M., & Hawkins, A. (in press). Economic Costs and Policy Implications Associated with Divorce: Texas as a Case Study, Journal of Divorce and Remarriage. Additionally, 3 entries the encyclopedia, "Cultural Sociology of Divorce: An Encyclopedia" (Ed.) R. E. Emery were accepted during the past year. -Adultery/Infidelity (Co-authored with graduate student Jennifer Sampson) -Divorces Initiated by Women (Co-authored with graduate student Erica Kanewischer) -Staying Married for the Sake of Children Co-authored with graduate student Kit Wickel)
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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