Hint of the Month and News Update - February, 2006
Past Hints
 
The Couple and Family Map – A Common Problem in Interpreting Scores

The Couple and Family Map is a powerful tool to use in helping couples and families better understand their relationships. 

The Couple and Family Map shows where each individual falls in terms of “closeness” and “flexibility” in past family experience, as well as where they are in their current couple relationship. 

One of the common problems Administrators have in interpreting closeness and flexibility scores in the reports comes from not fully appreciating the difference between couples scores and the individual scores. 

For example in the case of the couple relationship, the extent to which a couple describe their relationship in a similar way or not is revealed in the positive couple agreement percentages.  This is the COUPLE PCA score for couple closeness or couple flexibility.  The statement in the report of whether this is a relationship strength or not depends solely upon this couple score. The strength simply lies in their similarity. 

In addition, each individual’s assessment of the degree of couple closeness or couple flexibility is plotted on the Family Map.  This is based on the INDIVIDUAL male and female revised percentile scores for couple closeness and flexibility. 

So, it is possible for a couple to be regarded as having a relationship strength in this area, but for their individual scores to actually be outside of the balanced region in the family map.  The fact that they agree is good, but whether or not what they agree on is a good thing, and is working for them, is a matter for discussion with the couple. 
 
Past Hints  Last Month :  Marriage: Expect the Best or Expect a Struggle? 
 
News Update:  

    PROCESSING FEE INCREASED FROM FEBRUARY 1st 2006  
    As announced in the December 2005 Newsletter, we have reluctantly increased the cost of processing to $44 (including GST) from February 1st next year. This is the first increase in the base cost of processing since 1999.  The $35 processing charge was set then and the GST added to this in June 2000, taking the GST inclusive charge to $38.50. Between June 1999 and June 2005, our net costs have increased by almost 15% due to constant increases in the expenses associated largely with wages, printing and postage. Our aim is to maintain the new processing charge for a lengthy period of time (as we have done before). We always aimed to make the processing cost comparable to that of a modest meal for a couple – we feel sure that $44 (for a couple) is still well and truly within those limits. 
     
    The December 2005 issue of the Newsletter, the Prepare Diary, is available on this web site: To read, click on:  December 2005 Diary    The next newsletter will be posted in mid-December.