Your Place or Mine?: Examining the Accessibility and Efficacy of a Brief, Home-Based, Couple Intervention

• Published in: Journal of family psychology 2020-06, Vol.34 (4), p.496-502
• Main Authors: Lenger, Katherine A., Roberson, Patricia N. E., Amer, Zahra, Gray, Tatiana, Cordova, James V., Gordon, Kristina Coop
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access; Attitude Similarity; Attitudes; Brief interventions; Clinics; Couples; Couples Therapy; Efficacy; Ethnic groups; Female; Home based; Human; Intervention; Male; Marital status; Minority groups; Parents; Poverty; Test Construction; Underserved populations
• ISSN: 0893-3200; 1939-1293
• DOI: 10.1037/fam0000622

Interventions for couples that can be flexibly delivered (e.g., home) are gaining traction in the field of couple therapy, particularly for underserved couples who experience barriers to accessing traditional methods of care. However, questions remain regarding what types of couples prefer the home over traditional clinic settings and whether there are differences in treatment effectiveness in the home versus a clinic setting. The present study sought to address these gaps in the literature. Using a secondary data analysis approach, data from 339 couples who participated in a brief, relationship intervention were examined. Couples were able to select where they wanted to participate (i.e., their home or a local clinic). Logistic regression analyses revealed that parents were significantly more likely to choose to participate in the intervention at their home relative to nonparents. No differences in intervention setting emerged as a function of marital status, racial/ethnic minority status, or poverty status. Three 2-level multilevel models indicated that, at baseline, couples presented with similar attitudes toward relationship help seeking and relationship satisfaction across settings as well as established a similar alliance with the facilitator at 1 month after the intervention. Additionally, a series of 3-level multilevel models found that rates of change did not significantly differ between groups on attitudes toward relationship help seeking and relationship satisfaction across the intervention. Thus, despite the potential chaos of the home, home settings appear to be an equally effective delivery setting relative to traditional settings for this brief relationship intervention and may be particularly useful for reaching parents.