Randomized controlled trial of the Marriage Checkup: Stress outcomes

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Family Studies

Background:

• Couple interventions for relationship distress often improve individual mental health.
• Few studies have investigated the impact of couple interventions on perceived stress.
• The Marriage Checkup (MC) is a brief intervention designed for relationship distress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the effects of the Marriage Checkup (MC) on perceived stress in couples.
• To determine if the MC intervention leads to significant reductions in perceived stress over two years.

Main Methods:

• Randomly assigned 231 couples to either two MC sessions or a waitlist control group.
• Collected survey data at seven time points over a two-year period.
• Analyzed data using multilevel models to assess between-group treatment effects.

Main Results:

• No significant overall between-group treatment effects on average perceived stress were found.
• Women in the intervention group showed a decrease in stress after the second MC (d = -0.23).
• A higher percentage of women in the intervention group (26.5%) experienced reliable stress improvement compared to the control group (14.9%).

Conclusions:

• The MC intervention did not produce main effects on perceived stress for couples.
• The MC intervention led to temporary, reliable stress reduction specifically for women after the second session.
• Findings suggest a potential gender-specific, short-term benefit of the MC on perceived stress for women.