(PS8-25) The Influence of Natural Metaphor Patten Labeling on Couples Relationship Health

Relationship health impacts psychological (Londero-Santos et al., 2021), physical (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010), and child health (Amato, 2014). It is thus concerning that divorce rates in the U.S. are between 40-50%, indicating relationship health is an issue with far reaching effects (APA, n.d.). As such, it is incumbent upon researchers to develop and examine methods for improving relationship health. In recent years many interventions have risen to prominence with good empirical support (e.g., Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy (IBCT): Christensen & Doss, 2017; the Relationship Checkup (RC): Cordova et al., 2014).

There have concurrently been calls for the examination of components of existing interventions to uncover “fundamental units” (p. 176) to better understand the active elements of an intervention (Hayes et al., 2021). In so doing, we move away from packaged interventions that must hang together toward a creative future where we can draw upon a buffet of empirically supported “kernels” to most flexibly personalize treatment to each client.

Recent research indicates that relationship pattern labeling, a component of both IBCT and the RC, may be one such “kernel” (Rice et al., 2022). We aim to extend this research by examining if and why some pattern labels may be more effective than others in improving relationship health.

We hypothesize that the use of relationship pattern labels that are metaphors derived from nature (i.e., natural metaphors, henceforth) will have a more potent impact on relationship health relative to other patterns that directly describe couples’ common patterns. For instance, Approach-Withdraw is a direct descriptor of the relational pattern at play in which one partner approaches and the other withdraws. Meanwhile, Porcupine-Turtle is a natural metaphor that describes the same functional pattern – one in which one partner metaphorically extends their quills to attack during conflict (e.g., defends themselves by criticizing their partner) while the other partner metaphorically goes into their shell to hide (e.g., withdraws to their room during the conflict). We hypothesize that identifying and labeling natural metaphor patterns will improve relationship health more than descriptive patterns. Support for this hypothesis draws upon relational frame theory as it relates to the use of metaphors in therapy, research on the impact of nature in therapy, and behavioral conceptions of intimacy.

Participating couples will be randomly assigned into experimental (natural metaphor pattern) or active control (descriptive pattern) groups, wherein they will meet with a research clinician and learn about several such patterns before identifying a relevant pattern and discussing it together. Couples will complete pre- and post-intervention measures of their relationship health. We will use Actor-Partner Interdependence Models to examine differences across timepoints and groups for the couples in our sample. We have so far collected 30% of the data we plan to collect, based on our power analyses.

Should our hypothesis be supported, couples therapists, and couples independently exploring methods for improving relationship health might consider the use of natural metaphors as a simple yet purposeful approach.