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UWM Study Tests Effectiveness of 'Relationship Coaching'

By Laura L. Hunt

Can simple coaching in how to communicate better with one's partner improve the overall relationship? Can it help partners regulate their emotions? Can it also address the depression that may stem from relationship problems?

Nicole Roberts and Jonathan Kanter, two UWM assistant professors of psychology, are putting these questions to the test in a study of 100 undergraduate couples who are romantically involved.

“The novel part of this will be whether we can measure improvement in the way couples actually interact as a result of an intervention,” says Roberts, whose research focuses on the cultural and biological forces that shape emotion and emotion regulation. “No one has ever done that by observing couples in a lab setting before.”

The researchers will measure each couple’s overt show of emotions

And, since many people hold in their feelings, each partner also will wear sensors that record their physiological cues, like heart rate, pulse, sweating, and breathing rates. They also will gauge whether relationship coaching with one partner can help improve communication between both.

Because research shows that relationships are closely associated with depression, one treatment focuses specifically on improving those interactions, says Kanter, who specializes in improving behavioral psychotherapy for patients with depression.

Then, for some couples, one partner will receive “relationship coaching” for eight weeks. During that time, behaviors the client exhibits that may ultimately hurt his or her relationship will be addressed.

The couples will then come together and have another problem-solving conversation

The study makes two assumptions, says Kanter. The first one is that one or both partners are avoiding some type of behavior that could help or protect the relationship.

The second assumption is that the same behavior patterns that stymie communication with their partner are the ones that will reveal themselves in the relationship that each participant builds with the relationship coach.

Roberts has conducted a previous study of emotion and communication which analyzed the effects of job-related stress in the marriages of police officers. She found that stress and exhaustion greatly influenced whether couples were able to control their emotions and communicate constructively.

People don’t realize that they react to another’s negativity unconsciously

“One partner’s negativity elicits the same from the other partner and, once that happens, it’s harder to get control. In many happy couples, that cycle is broken with affection or humor.”

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