IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v17y2016i1p213-237.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving Personal Happiness Through Couple Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Self-directed Couple Enhancement Program

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Hilpert
  • Guy Bodenmann
  • Fridtjof Nussbeck
  • Thomas Bradbury

Abstract

Although personal happiness is highly associated with social relationships, basic questions remain regarding the causal effect of improved social relationships on happiness. The main aim of this study was to test whether emotional and cognitive dimensions of personal happiness can be increased by means of a self-directed relationship enhancement program, which aims to increase relationship-relevant skills such as dyadic coping, communication, and conflict resolution. N = 220 couples were randomly assigned either to an intervention or to a waiting list control group (survey: pre-, post-, 3- and 6-month follow-ups). Multi-group latent change score models reveal that (1) personal happiness can be increased through a couple intervention; (2) change in personal happiness was predicted by an increase in skills and relationship satisfaction through the intervention; (3) the least happy participants benefited most from the intervention. Improving spousal interactions may help people become and stay happier. Participants in this study did not relapse to their set point of personal happiness as could be expected by adaptation theory. Thus, not treating individuals directly, but rather the dynamic system of spousal interactions as a whole, offers a potentially very powerful area for happiness research. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Hilpert & Guy Bodenmann & Fridtjof Nussbeck & Thomas Bradbury, 2016. "Improving Personal Happiness Through Couple Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Self-directed Couple Enhancement Program," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 213-237, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:17:y:2016:i:1:p:213-237
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-014-9591-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-014-9591-7
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-014-9591-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ed Diener, 1994. "Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 103-157, February.
    2. Kennon Sheldon & Sonja Lyubomirsky, 2006. "Achieving Sustainable Gains in Happiness: Change Your Actions, not Your Circumstances," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 55-86, March.
    3. Sonja Lyubomirsky & Heidi Lepper, 1999. "A Measure of Subjective Happiness: Preliminary Reliability and Construct Validation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 137-155, February.
    4. Charles Lance & Alison Mallard & Alex Michalos, 1995. "Tests of the causal directions of global — Life facet satisfaction relationships," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 69-92, January.
    5. Bruce Headey & Ruut Veenhoven & Alex Wearing, 1991. "Top-down versus bottom-up theories of subjective well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 81-100, February.
    6. Michael Eid & Ed Diener, 2004. "Global Judgments of Subjective Well-Being: Situational Variability and Long-Term Stability," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 245-277, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Estefanía Mónaco & Usue de la Barrera & Inmaculada Montoya-Castilla, 2021. "The Effectiveness of EMOVERE: An Emotional Education Program for Young Couples," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-17, February.
    2. Selda Koydemir & Aslı Bugay Sökmez & Astrid Schütz, 2021. "A Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Randomized Controlled Positive Psychological Interventions on Subjective and Psychological Well-Being," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 1145-1185, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lukasz Kaczmarek & Aleksandra Bujacz & Michael Eid, 2015. "Comparative Latent State–Trait Analysis of Satisfaction with Life Measures: The Steen Happiness Index and the Satisfaction with Life Scale," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 443-453, April.
    2. Lan Chaplin, 2009. "Please May I Have a Bike? Better Yet, May I Have a Hug? An Examination of Children’s and Adolescents’ Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(5), pages 541-562, October.
    3. Gunvor Dyrdal & Espen Røysamb & Ragnhild Nes & Joar Vittersø, 2011. "Can a Happy Relationship Predict a Happy Life? A Population-Based Study of Maternal Well-Being During the Life Transition of Pregnancy, Infancy, and Toddlerhood," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 12(6), pages 947-962, December.
    4. Mariano Rojas & Karen Watkins-Fassler & Lázaro Rodríguez-Ariza, 2022. "The Life Satisfaction of Owner-Manager Entrepreneurs When the Business of Business is not only Business," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(4), pages 2251-2275, August.
    5. Po-Ju Chang & Rui Song & Yeqiang Lin, 2019. "Air Pollution as a Moderator in the Association Between Leisure Activities and Well-Being in Urban China," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(8), pages 2401-2430, December.
    6. Mark Holder & Ben Coleman & Kamlesh Singh, 2012. "Temperament and Happiness in Children in India," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 261-274, April.
    7. Krueger, Alan B. & Schkade, David A., 2008. "The reliability of subjective well-being measures," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(8-9), pages 1833-1845, August.
    8. Headey, Bruce & Muffels, Ruud, 2014. "Two-way Causation in Life Satisfaction Research: Structural Equation Models with Granger-Causation," IZA Discussion Papers 8665, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Massimo Aria & Michelangelo Misuraca & Maria Spano, 2020. "Mapping the Evolution of Social Research and Data Science on 30 Years of Social Indicators Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 803-831, June.
    10. Bogdan Voicu, 2015. "Priming Effects in Measuring Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 993-1013, December.
    11. Mark Holder & Andrea Klassen, 2010. "Temperament and Happiness in Children," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 419-439, August.
    12. Mariya A. Yukhymenko-Lescroart & Gitima Sharma, 2019. "The Relationship Between Faculty Members’ Passion for Work and Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 863-881, March.
    13. Ceren Peri Cignitas & Juan Antonio Torrents Arevalo & Jordi Vilajosana Crusells, 2023. "Literature Review on the Effect of Balanced Scorecard on Employee Wellbeing," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 17(3), pages 103-103, February.
    14. Bruce Headey & Ruud Muffels, 2016. "Towards a Theory of Life Satisfaction: Accounting for Stability, Change and Volatility in 25-Year Life Trajectories in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 864, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    15. Valter Afonso Vieira, 2022. "The mediating role of happiness on the effect of locomotion and effort on salesperson’s performance and cross-selling: the case of financial insurance," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(4), pages 346-359, December.
    16. María Sastre, 1999. "Lay Conceptions of Well-Being and Rules Used in Well-Being Judgments Among Young, Middle-Aged, and Elderly Adults," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 203-231, June.
    17. Isabel Albuquerque & Margarida Lima & Cláudia Figueiredo & Marcela Matos, 2012. "Subjective Well-Being Structure: Confirmatory Factor Analysis in a Teachers’ Portuguese Sample," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 105(3), pages 569-580, February.
    18. Shiri Cohen Kaminitz, 2018. "Happiness Studies and the Problem of Interpersonal Comparisons of Satisfaction: Two Histories, Three Approaches," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 423-442, February.
    19. Ömer Şimşek & Melikşah Demir, 2013. "Parental Support for Basic Psychological Needs and Happiness: The Importance of Sense of Uniqueness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 661-678, July.
    20. Mònica González & Germà Coenders & Marc Saez & Ferran Casas, 2010. "Non-linearity, Complexity and Limited Measurement in the Relationship Between Satisfaction with Specific Life Domains and Satisfaction with Life as a Whole," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 335-352, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:17:y:2016:i:1:p:213-237. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.