Topic: Relationships, Communication, Life Stress
Target Population: Couples
Sector: Community-Based, Work Site
This program is for couples who are married or are considering marriage and who desire to maintain or enhance their relationship quality.
Couples Coping Enhancement Training (CCET), a community-based or work-site, manualized, marital-distress preventive program, is designed to improve couples' relationship quality by improving their communication and problem-solving skills and strengthening their individual and dyadic coping skills.
Internal evaluations of the program have demonstrated significant improvements in marital quality, psychological well-being, dyadic coping, problem-solving abilities, and communication skills. Effects for marital quality and psychological well-being were shown to be maintained over a 1-year follow-up. Additionally, one study evaluating a work-site implementation of CCET found significant improvements from pretest to posttest in dyadic coping and communication skills among both partners; however, 5-month follow-up data suggested that the effects were only maintained for the partners employed at the work site. An evaluation among dual well-earning couples showed modest effects, and most results faded by a 6-month follow-up. Authors speculate that this may be due to the fact that couples were relatively high functioning. Results from an evaluation of a cultural adaptation of CCET that was implemented in Iran indicated significant improvements in mean scores of marital adjustment of wives in the treatment group, compared to placebo and control groups, at a 6-month follow-up.
CCET intends to help improve relationship quality and foster healthy parenting by teaching couples how to manage stress. Participants are taught individual coping skills and how to cope with stress as a couple, which is known as dyadic coping. The program consists of the following six modules:
CCET is delivered to four to eight couples with one trainer for every two couples. Program content is conveyed to couples through short lectures and by video examples, quizzes, demonstrations of helpful and unhelpful problem-solving strategies, video and live demonstrations of constructive communication and dyadic coping skills, and supervised role-plays and exercises. Diagnostic assessments are used to measure individual stress levels, communication styles, problem-solving skills, and coping skills.
Program implementation began in 1996 and has been conducted with over 600 couples in Switzerland.
Program facilitators typically have a master’s degree in clinical psychology. A required, 30-hour training is delivered over 4 days. After the training, the facilitators are supervised for 20 hours to ensure they are prepared to implement the program. Please use details in the Contact section to learn more.
Considerations for implementing this program include recruiting qualified facilitators and making arrangements for them to receive training, acquiring participant buy-in, obtaining space to conduct sessions, ensuring sessions are delivered with fidelity, and possibly providing child care during sessions.
The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
If you are interested in implementing CCET, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you!
Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
Implementation time for CCET is 18 hours, and the program can be delivered in several formats: a weekend course (i.e., Friday night through Sunday night), six 3-hour weekly sessions, or as part of a 1-week retreat.
Implementation fees are negotiated with interested researchers and practitioners. Please use details in the Contact section to learn more.
To move CCET to the Effective category on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence at least one external evaluation must be conducted that demonstrates sustained, positive outcomes. This study must be conducted independently of the program developer.
The Clearinghouse can help you to develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program.
Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: Clearinghouse@psu.edu
You may also contact Dr. Guy Bodenmann by phone +41 44 635 75 33 or email guy.bodenmann@psychologie.uzh.ch
https://crimesolutions.ojp.gov/ratedprograms/665; Bodenmann, Cina, Lederman, and Sanders (2008); Bodenmann and Shantinath (2004); and Bodenmann, Charvoz, Cina, and Widmer (2001).
Bodenmann, G., Charvoz, L., Cina, A., & Widmer, K. (2001). Prevention of marital distress by enhancing the coping skills of couples: 1-year follow-up-study. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 60(1), 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1024//1421-0185.60.1.3
Ledermann, T., Bodenmann, G., & Cina, A. (2007). The efficacy of the Couples Coping Enhancement Training (CCET) in improving relationship quality. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 26(8), 940-959. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2007.26.8.940
Omidian, M., Boogar, I. R., Talepasand, S., Najafi, M., & Kaveh, M. (2019). The cultural tailoring and effectiveness of Couples Coping Enhancement Training on marital adjustment of wives. Journal of Practice in Clinical Psychology, 7(1), 43-52. https://doi.org/10.32598/jpcp.7.1.43
Pihet, S., Bodenmann, G., Cina, A., Widmer, K., & Shantinath, S. (2007). Can prevention of marital distress improve well-being? A 1 year longitudinal study. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 14(2), 79-88. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.522
Schaer, M., Bodenmann, G., & Klink, T. (2008). Balancing work and relationship: Couples Coping Enhancement Training (CCET) in the workplace. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 57, 71-89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2008.00355.x
Zemp, M., Merz, C. A., Nussbeck, F. W., Halford, W. K., Schaer Gmelch, M., & Bodenmann, G. (2017). Couple relationship education: A randomized controlled trial of professional contact and self-directed tools. Journal of Family Psychology, 31(3), 347-357. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000257
Bodenmann, G., Cina, A., Ledermann, T., & Sanders, M. R. (2008). The efficacy of the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program in improving parenting and child behavior: A comparison with two other treatment conditions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46(4), 411-427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.01.001
Bodenmann, G., & Shantinath, S. D. (2004). The Couples Coping Enhancement Training (CCET): A new approach to prevention of marital distress based upon stress and coping. Family Relations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies, 53(5), 477-484. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0197-6664.2004.00056.x
Halford, W. K., Pepping, C. A., Hilpert, P., Bodenmann, G., Wilson, K. L., Busby, D., ... Holman, T. (2015). Immediate effect of couple relationship education on low-satisfaction couples: A randomized clinical trial plus an uncontrolled trial replication. Behavior Therapy, 46(3), 409-421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2015.02.001
Monirian, F., Khodakarami, B., Tapak, L., Asadi, F. K., & Aghababaei, S. (2022). The effect of Couples Coping Enhancement Counseling on stress and dyadic coping on infertile couples: A parallel randomized controlled trial study. International Journal of Fertility & Sterility, 16(4), 275-280. https://doi.org/10.22074/IJFS.2022.540919.1203
Zemp, M., Milek, A., Cummings, E. M., & Bodenmann, G. (2017). Longitudinal interrelations between dyadic coping and coparenting conflict in couples. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26(8), 2276-2290. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0742-4
Zemp, M., Milek, A., Cummings, E. M., Cina, A., & Bodenmann, G. (2016). How couple- and parenting-focused programs affect child behavioral problems: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(3), 798-810. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-015-0260-1
