Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Efficacy of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and Behavioral Couples Therapy: A Meta‐Analysis

2018; Wiley; Volume: 45; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/jmft.12336

1752-0606

Maren Rathgeber, Paul‐Christian Bürkner, Eva‐Maria Schiller, Heinz Holling,

Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Behavioral couple therapy ( BCT ) and emotionally focused couples therapy ( EFCT ) are well‐established treatments to reduce couple distress. This meta‐analysis summarizes the current state of knowledge on the efficacy of these two therapy methods by focusing on randomized controlled trials only. A literature search revealed 33 suitable primary studies (2,730 participants in total), all of them measuring relationship satisfaction. Robust‐variance random‐effects meta‐analysis revealed medium effect sizes at post‐test (overall: g = 0.60; BCT : g = 0.53; EFCT : g = 0.73) and small effect sizes of 6 months after treatment (overall: g = 0.44; BCT : g = 0.35; EFCT : g = 0.66), but these gains were not maintained after 12 months ( BCT only: g = 0.06). Between the two therapy methods, no significant effect size differences could be found. Results have to be interpreted with caution due to potential publication bias.