Symposia
Couples / Close Relationships
Katherine A. Lenger, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Brown University & Providence VA Medical Center
Providence, Rhode Island
Olive Schubert, PhD
Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student
University of Denver
Denver, Colorado
Erica Mitchell, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Patricia Roberson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Kristina Coop Gordon, Ph.D.
Associate Dean
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee
James Cordova, Ph.D.
Professor
Clark University
Worcester, Massachusetts
Sexual minority couples face unique chronic stressors (e.g., discrimination, rejection, and concealment of stigmatized identity) that significantly impact individual and relationship health. Appalachian culture has significant biases and legal policies that effect the LGBTQ+ population, making same-sex couples in these communities particularly vulnerable to individual and relationship distress. Bringing relationship services to Appalachia’s LGBTQ+ community may help mitigate the implications of minority stress on relationship functioning. Yet many relationship interventions, including the Relationship Checkup, were developed, and validated among predominately different-sex couples. While components of these interventions may generalize to same-sex couples, research is needed to ensure that these interventions are effectively meeting the needs of the population being served. Further, research has yet to examine how same-sex couples’ living in Appalachia present and respond to brief relationship interventions. Thus, using a matched-sample design, the present study sought to examine (1) whether same-sex and different-sex couples’ initial relationship functioning presentations might differ when they apply to a brief-relationship intervention and (2) how these couples’ trajectories of change might vary across the intervention.
Data were analyzed using a subsample of the 656 couples who participated in Relationship Rx. The present sample included 158 individuals (79 couples) in romantic relationships. Of these couples, 33 were in same-sex committed relationships and 46 were in different-sex committed relationships. In selecting different-sex participants from the Relationship Rx dataset, we used Propensity Match Scoring to choose participants who were comparable to the same-sex participants along variables of marital status and individual income. Of the same-sex couples, 27 couples (81.82%) identified as lesbian and 6 couples (18.18%) as gay. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. For Aim 1, results revealed that, at baseline, same sex couples reported significantly greater intimacy (B = .34(.09), p < .001), relational aggression (B = .26(.09), p = .003), and verbal aggression (B = .23 (.09), p = .01). Physical aggression was approaching significance (B = .17(.10), p = .053). Couples did not differ on communication (B = .13(.07), p = .08) or relationship satisfaction (B = .09(.10), p = .37). Aims 1 and 2 results as well as clinical implications will be discussed in the presentation.