Communication Problems in Marriage and Marriage Counseling

Judge Alexander's plan for a new method of handling at an earlier stage requests for divorce and perhaps also other family problems is now familiar to many groups. This proposed plan for court procedure contains a basic requirement, first, that a problem of marital discord should be carefully investigated by a committee of experts before a petition for divorce be permitted to come into the courts, and second, that the court then should be guided in its decision by the recommendations of this committee as to what is for the best interest of the family as a whole. From the point of view of a social worker and marriage counselor such an attempt appears to be a step well in advance of much current legal court practice. If such a therapeutic approach to the divorce problem should be put into effect, I believe that the social worker and marriage counselor should be a part of this approach and would be able to contribute to it. My assignment is to consider in some detail what this part might be-first in broad context, and second under the reality limitations of present conditions. Some understanding of the basic tenets of social work should help in orientation to the point of view that social work could contribute to the suggested therapeutic approach to divorce. Social work generically is concerned with human behavior and human relationships. Marriage and divorce are admittedly vital processes in human relationships. Casework, as one branch of social work, prepares its workers primarily to deal with the emotional growth and security of the individual. An emotionally mature and reasonably secure individual can usually handle the run-of-themill problems of marriage and family living. According to Dr. Hertha Kraus,1

the agency, characteristics of the agency clientele, and the training and activity of the priest-counselors themselves. For many years, Catholic couples in the Archdiocese who found themselves involved in marriage problems ordinarily had recourse to the ministrations of their local pastor or curate. In the course of such counseling encounters, a wide variety of approaches would be employed in accordance with the skill, experience, and competence of the individual clergyman. However, a good many of these couples, caught up in the heat of mutual recrimination and emotional involvement, would request referral to the Marriage Court of the Chancery Office. This was done with the idea that some more punitive action might be taken against the alleged offending party, and also, in many cases, in the hope that per mission for separation or even legal divorce might be granted. Anyone familiar with the entanglements and complexities of con temporary marriage problems will realize what a mass of material these marriage judges had to handle. The judges were essentially ordained clergymen with some special training in Canon Law, but with no special sophistication in the many other matters with which they were con fronted. In effect, they were being asked to make complex judgments in matters of neurotic behavior, psychosis, family finances, child rearing,

Conflict exists everywhere. People experience conflicts in their jobs, families, schools and even in the church. Conflict can neither be avoided nor ignored. Conflict that is not managed correctly diminishes happiness and has the potential to destroy people, it leaves them broken and burnt out. Marital conflict is a part of everyday life and how couples handle conflict in their relationship affects the strength and type of relationship a couple may have. Conflict may have the power to destroy or build a marriage. The study on marital conflict management among couples in Ainamoi Division was conducted through randomly interviewing forty married individuals in Ainamoi Division of Kericho County. The researchers employed a descriptive approach to analyse the data which was displayed through tables, charts, and graphs. The research has shown the following factors causing conflict in marriage in their order of priority: communication problems, financial management conflicts, issues surrounding children, in-laws, sexual issues, and finally, behaviour problems. Therefore, there is a need to counsel and teach married couples skills such as communication, financial management and relational skills in order for them to know how to manage marital conflict. This study concludes that marital counselling is in dire need in the society, and so counsellors, pastors and church leaders should come out and make awareness of it in the society

We examine the sensitivity to change in the Evaluation of Social Systems (EVOS) scale, which assesses relationship quality and collective efficacy. In Study 1 we conducted a waitlist-control, short-term couple therapy RCT study (N=43 couples) with five systemic therapy sessions treating communication and partnership problems; our intent was to provide high external validity. Construct validity of EVOS was assessed by comparison with additionally applied scales (Family Scales; Outcome Questionnaire, OQ-45.2). In Study 2, N=332 individuals completed an experiment with high internal validity in order to verify sensitivity to change in three different social contexts. Results from Study 1 revealed a significant increase in relationship quality in the treatment group directly after treatment, as compared to the control group. Sensitivity to change was slightly better for EVOS than for other measures. While this positive change could not be fully sustained between posttreatment and a 4-week follow-up, EVOS score did not fall below baseline and pretreatment levels, supporting moderate-to-large sensitivity to change. Study 2 supported high sensitivity to change in EVOS for couple relations, family relations, and work-team relationships. Therefore, EVOS can be used as an outcome measure to monitor the process of systemic interventions focusing on relationship quality and collective efficacy. Due to its sensitivity to change, EVOS can provide evidence for treatment success with regard to relationship aspects.

Assisting married couples in resolving relational issues is essential for maintaining family stability, with psychological interventions such as marriage counseling and psychotherapy playing a key role. Given the wide range of approaches currently in use, further mapping and evaluation are needed to guide the development of more effective interventions. This study conducts a scoping review to systematically identify types of marital problems, contributing factors, and intervention models applied over the past decade. Using the PRISMA-ScR protocol, 2,602 articles were initially retrieved from Web of Science, Scopus, and ScienceDirect databases, with 76 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. The review reveals that common marital issues include poor communication, domestic violence, sexual and intimacy challenges, mental health disorders, cultural clashes, gender role conflicts, infidelity, and socio-economic disparities. These issues often intersect with influencing factors such as religious beliefs, communication styles, emotional regulation, trauma, stress, substance abuse, education, culture, stigma, and social support. The most frequently used intervention model is couple or marriage therapy, with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) receiving significant attention for its effectiveness. Other identified approaches include psychodynamic, humanistic-existential, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), mindfulness-based interventions, integrative methods, group-based therapy, and religion-based counseling. However, the literature remains dominated by conventional psychological frameworks, with limited incorporation of religious or spiritual approaches, despite their relevance to many clients. This mapping provides a foundation for researchers and practitioners to design more culturally and spiritually responsive interventions tailored to diverse client needs.

Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT) attempts to improve Traditional Behavioral Couple Therapy (TBCT) by incorporating an emphasis on promoting acceptance into TBCT's emphasis on behavioral change. This study examined changes in couples' communication over the course of IBCT and TBCT. Early, middle, and late sessions were coded to measure couples' communication of acceptance. Results showed that IBCT couples expressed more nonblaming descriptions of problems and more soft emotions than TBCT couples during late stages of therapy. IBCT couples significantly increased their nonblaming description of problems and significantly decreased their expressions of hard emotions and their problematic communication over time. Results support the hypothesis that structural differences between the therapies affect initial levels of emotional expression in session. Increases in nonblaming descriptions of problems were significantly correlated with increases in marital satisfaction.

The research focuses on postpartum depression (PPD) among modern Arab women living in traditional societies. The purpose of the project is to explore the potential impact of the hitherto unstudied factors of level of modernism/traditionalism and the quality of spousal relationship. This study included 1202 participants of different levels of modernism, who completed research questionnaires. The finding showed that 15.2% of the participants suffered from PPD. Modern women suffered from PPD more than their traditional peers. Problematic spousal relationship did not affect PPD among the modern women. About one-third of the respondents were not familiar with the concept of PPD. Depressed respondents refused to disclose their predicament because of the negative stigma attached to PPD and the fear that the husband would marry a second wife. Traditional orientation serves as a resilience factor, which decreases the risk for PPD. It is highly recommended to design and implement antenatal and postnatal education programs for all married women and raise their awareness of PPD and feasible solutions. It is highly important to promise and secure full confidentiality while providing professional treatment. It is also recommended to offer marital counseling for couples who experience problematic relationship communication.