Abstract
The efficacy of cognitive behavioral marital therapy for distressed couples and of prevention programs for couples planning marriage has been convincingly proven. However, there is a lack of indicated prevention programs for married couples who do not seek marital therapy although they are subjectively concerned about their deteriorating marriage. In this study the efficacy of a compact psychoeducational group prevention program (EPL II) was investigated in a randomized controlled study with 67 couples. The couples were recruited by newspaper announcements, then randomly assigned to the EPL-II prevention program or to a waiting-list control group. The EPL II lasts 16 hours and is carried out by 2 trainers on a weekend. It consists of communication and problem-solving training, discussions of the couples to clarify their relationship expectations, and an excercise to enhance their sensual/sexual relationship. At postassessment 15 weeks after the training, EPL-II couples showed more positive verbal and nonverbal communication behavior during a conflict discussion task than control couples, who reported significantly more relationship problem areas and displayed more negative communication behavior. At the 1-year follow-up, EPL-II couples reported fewer problem areas in comparison to the preassessment.
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