Journal of Counseling Psychology 1997, Vol. 44, No. 4,381-389 Copyright 1997 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0022-0167/97/$3.Q0 Strategic Hope-Focused Relationship-Enrichment Counseling With Individual Couples Everett L. Worthington, Jr., Terry L. Hight, Jennifer S. Ripley, Kristin M. Perrone, Taro A. Kurusu, and Dawn R. Jones Virginia Commonwealth University Strategic hope-focused relationship enrichment is a brief, eclectic, research-based program to enhance couples' relationships. Couples (N = 51; 16 married, 24 cohabiting, 11 engaged) completed 5 sessions of enrichment counseling (n - 26) or 3 written assessments (n = 25) from 1 of 12 counselors. Couples receiving enrichment counseling had higher relationship satisfaction and quality-of-couple skills at posttest and at the 3-week follow-up than did written-assessment-only (control) couples. Conditions did not differ in terms of quality of overall attraction or 2 measures of commitment. We concluded that relationship enrichment using this program was effective, powerful, and cost-effective. Future research should focus on testing the effectiveness of the program presented in a group format. Couples often seek assistance from counseling psycholo- gists to enrich their relationships, and these psychologists must not only intervene effectively but cost-effectively as well. Many relationship-enrichment programs have been proposed (for reviews, see Alexander, Holtzworth-Munroe, & Jameson, 1994; Guerney & Maxson, 1990; Zimpfer, 1988), and in most of these programs, couples meet in groups to discuss prescribed topics (e.g., the Association of Couples for Marriage Enrichment [ACME], Mace & Mace, 1984; Marriage Encounter, Calvo, 1975) or to learn and practice communication skills (e.g., the Interpersonal Com- munication Program, Miller, Wackman, Nunnally, & Miller, 1988; Relationship Enhancement, Guerney, 1977). In con- trast, in Structured Enrichment (L'Abate, 1981, 1985), couples meet with a counselor who provides information and skills training. These approaches to relationship enrichment suffer from at least one of three weaknesses. First, few have been investigated empirically. Second, many were developed in the 1970s and do not incorporate recent findings about marriage and methods to improve it. Third, most are quite time-consuming. Worthington and his colleagues (Ham- monds & Worthington, 1985; Worthington, 1991; Worthing- ton, Buston, & Hammonds, 1989; Worthington et al., 1995) have developed an empirically investigated, state-of-the-art, brief relationship-enrichment program, which can be con- ducted by mental health providers in a variety of settings. In this article we report an empirical investigation of the effectiveness of this program, which we call strategic hope-focused relationship enrichment. Everett L. Worthington, Jr., Terry L. Hight, Jennifer S. Ripley, Kristin M. Perrone, Taro A. Kunisu, and Dawn R. Jones, Depart- ment of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Everett L. Worthington, Jr., Thurston House, Virginia Common- wealth University, 808 West Franklin Street, P.O. Box 842018, Richmond, Virginia 23284-2018. Electronic mail may be sent via Internet to eworth@vcu.edu. Strategic hope-focused relationship enrichment is built on much empirical investigation. Worthington and his col- leagues, in separate studies, have examined elements of an eclectic approach to couples' enrichment. In the first study (Hammonds & Worthington, 1985), married and unmarried couples discussed intimacy, communication, and conflict resolution—several of the core elements of strategic hope- focused relationship enrichment—in an unstructured group format. Couples were not trained or taught, but they shared their experiences in a facilitated group. Although facilitators attempted to follow (not lead) participants' conversations, facilitators influenced the direction of discussion by what the facilitators attended to. In the second study (Worthington et al., 1989), couples were either (a) taught (in a facilitated group or in a counselor-couple triad) intimacy, communica- tion, and conflict-resolution skills by watching and discuss- ing 10-min teaching tapes or (b) allowed to discuss the three topics without viewing the teaching tapes. In this 2 X 2 (Group or Triad X Brief Teaching or None) design, the group format accounted for more variance than did the brief teaching—though both had an effect. Effect sizes for pre- to posttreatment changes in dyadic satisfaction varied between a mean of 0.10 for the two conditions in which couples were counseled and 0.58 for the two group conditions. There is evidence that in addition to teaching and training couples and facilitating their interactions in groups, providing couples with thorough assessments of their relationships plus written and oral feedback to them about their relationships also facilitate couples' enrichment (see Worthington et al., 1995). Strategic hope-focused relationship enrichment is built on current knowledge. Existing programs—such as ACME, Marriage Encounter, the Interpersonal Communication Pro- gram, Relationship Enhancement, or Structured Enrich- ment—were developed in the 1970s, and most focused on enhancing communication. In the 1990s, the importance of influencing communication has been well established; how- ever, with the high divorce rate (Gottman, 1994), many couples are demoralized and without hope for a successful marriage. They may opt for cohabitation, though the progno- 381 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. 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