Hint of the Month and News Update - February, 2006
Past Hints
 
Working with Disengaged Premarital Couples

Sometimes a premarital couple describes their own relationship as being disengaged and yet they appear to be satisfied in general.  Also, they often believe that they will inevitably become more connected with each other after they are married.

Research suggests that this might be more of a problem than the couple (or the Prepare Administrator) realize.  A study by David Smith, Dina Vivian and Daniel O'Leary (Longitudinal Prediction of Marital Discord From Premarital Expressions of Affect, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1990, 58 (6), 790–798) found that:

  • At the premarital assessment, Disengagement was uncorrelated with marital satisfaction, bearing no relation to concurrent reports of marital satisfaction. 
  • However, at 18- and 30-month follow-up assessments after they were married, the premaritally assessed Disengagement was negatively related to marital satisfaction. 
  • The more satisfied couples at 18- and 30-month follow-ups were those, who at premarriage, could be characterized as communicating about problems in a nonquiet, nonsluggish, nonsilent, energetic, and excited manner. That is they were ENGAGED not DISENGAGED. 
These findings strongly suggest that we should not be too passive, and be more challenging about high levels of couple disengagement in the Couple Map for premarital couples.

Past Hints  Last Month :  The Couple and Family Map – A Common Problem in Interpreting Scores. 
 
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.