Treated together-changed together: The application of dyadic analyses to understand the reciprocal nature of alliances and couple satisfaction over time

Abstract

In a Norwegian study of 73 couples attending a residential couple therapy program lasting between 6 and 12 weeks, weekly self-report data on therapy alliance and couple satisfaction were collected using routine outcome monitoring (ROM). The aim was to show how dyadic analyses could be applied to examine the predictive association between alliances and couple satisfaction. Results showed that improved alliance between dyad members and their couple therapist predicted their spouses' couple satisfaction. Furthermore, improved couple satisfaction predicted improvement in spouse's alliance. The clinical implication of these findings should heighten awareness to the importance of establishing and maintaining the alliance of male partners in couple therapy, something that predicts their spouses' couple satisfaction. These findings help nuance the already existing literature on the working alliance. Furthermore, we propose that dyadic analyses should be widely used in any psychotherapeutic research that aims to understand the reciprocal effects of dyads.

Keywords: clinical evidence-based; outcomes; populations assessment/diagnosis; research couples; research process; theory/model.

Figure 1

APIM for overtime data. X = process variable; Y = outcome variable; a = actor effect; p = partner effect; e = error. In a cross‐lagged design, this pattern is repeated with Y variable being lagged one timepoint after the X variable. The presented model is adapted from Kenny et al. (2020).