The American Journal of Family Therapy, 36:229–241, 2008 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0192-6187 print / 1521-0383 online DOI: 10.1080/01926180701290941 The Relationship Between Stages of Change and Outcome in Couple Therapy RACHEL B. TAMBLING and LEE N. JOHNSON University of Georgia, Department of Child and Family Development, Athens, Georgia, USA Individuals who present for couple therapy may not be equally pre- pared to change. To explore the impact of readiness to change in couple therapy, this study examined the relationship between indi- vidual stage of change, dropout, and therapy outcomes in a sample of 469 individuals from 290 couples in marital therapy. Findings indicated that women were more distressed and more motivated to change than men, and that men were more variable in terms of readiness to change. Individual stage of change was unrelated to dropout or outcome. INTRODUCTION Researchers in the field of marital therapy have long been interested in un- derstanding for whom therapy works and why. Despite these efforts, marital therapy researchers continue to report significant dropout rates, high inci- dences of early termination from therapy, and limited effect sizes (Shadish & Baldwin, 2003). One explanation for these results is that couples often present for therapy reporting unequal levels of distress and, subsequently, differing readiness for change (Doss, Atkins, & Chritensen, 2003). To better understand how couples’ varying levels of distress and readiness to change affect outcomes in therapy, the present study examined the relationship be- tween distress, readiness to change, premature dropout, and outcome. Stages of Change One framework for conceptualizing readiness to change is the Transtheoret- ical Model (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983). This model has been applied to client motivation with a variety of problem behaviors and describes client Address correspondence to Rachel B. Tambling, Department of Child and Family Devel- opment, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602. E-mail: tambling@uga.edu 229