Fundamental Research Weaknesses
The research into the issues and conflicts existing between married couples with children is a highly complex matter due to a number of reasons. First, it is difficult to draw the line between marital and parental conflicts. The researchers outline two primary hypotheses concerning the correlation between marital relationship and parent-child connection: spillover and compensatory (Li et al., 2020). According to the spillover theory, a negative marital relationship extrapolates on the relationship with children, whereas the compensatory framework implies that a lack of strong marital connection leads to increased attention to the children because parents seek compensation for weak contact with each other (Li et al., 2020). Thus, it can be reasonable to dwell on the nature of conflicts between couples and their subsequent impact on other relationships.
In the initial research proposal for the project, the aim was to investigate the ways in which counseling could help families overcome the relationship obstacles, focusing on the counseling methods that would benefit couples the most. Although the topic of the counseling impact should remain unchanged, it is necessary to change the approach to the research questions outlined for the research. In the initial proposal, the project aimed at investigating the problems of the marital relationship and parent-child relationships separately, including different approaches to counseling.
A simultaneous focus on two different branches of family therapy has a series of weaknesses that should be addressed. First, the overall division between the problems that concern separately parents and their relationship with children is rather unrealistic because family is defined as a unit with a high level of interdependence. When talking of such issues as money, regarded solely as a marital relationship issue, the roots of the problem may be traced back to taking care of children and parents’ attitude towards spending less money on their needs and working more than usual.
Second, the number of research questions presented in the project makes the subjects rather broad considering the resources available for the study. In order to identify the most beneficial counseling methods for dealing separately with parental and marital issues, the research should include a large sample and last long enough to try various methods of counseling on couples with almost identical backgrounds and issues. For this reason, it is necessary to narrow the scope of the research in order to increase the quality rate of the outcomes.
Finally, the research question of identifying the best counseling method for parents and their relationship with children would require the inclusion of a vast number of counseling frameworks. This process will include an extensive number of counselors, sessions, participants, and training time. Moreover, the desire to focus simultaneously on many approaches to counseling would reduce the quality of sessions conducted, so it might be beneficial to reconsider the number of approaches included in the intervention.
Thus, as far as the dissemination of the research problem is concerned, the decision was made to define family therapy as an umbrella term for both the relationship between the partners and their families. However, considering the potential challenge of the age gap between the children participating in the research, the focus of the therapy will be placed on parents. Hence, the primary research goal has been modified and is now as follows: “to explore how marriage and family counseling impacts the quality of family relationship as a whole.” In other words, the major focus is now placed on how professional counseling for parents impacts their relationship and, subsequently, their relationship with the children.
The modification of the research goal definition addresses the second weakness of the proposal. Indeed, focusing solely on couple therapy for the parents excludes the questions of counseling for parental issues. In fact, the notion of couple therapy for families usually includes the notion of parenthood, as it is an inseparable aspect of the couple’s life. For this reason, shifting the focus would not produce much fewer results and insights into the roots of family conflicts, whereas the quality of these insights will be better.
The issue regarding counseling approaches will be addressed through exhaustive research in the field of beneficial family counseling methods. For example, the chosen counseling intervention could include emotionally focused therapy (EFT) and solution-focused therapy. In the case of EFT, Beasley and Ager (2019) state that “as it relates to marital satisfaction, EFCT is an effective treatment, both in facilitating change during treatment and in maintaining those improvements following treatment” (p. 144). Brief solution-focused therapy, according to Davarniya et al. (2018), “brief solution-focused couple therapy has been able to significantly reduce couple burnout in the posttest stage and in the follow-up stage” (p. 123). Further literature research may present more findings on the topic, choosing two to three potentially beneficial methods of counseling for an intervention. In such a way, the allocation of resources to fewer counseling approaches is more likely to present tangible and valuable study outcomes. Based on the alterations presented to address the proposal’s weaknesses, the newly introduced research questions should be as follows:
- Does couple counseling affect the quality of family relationships?
- Does couple counseling reduce the number of parental issues and family conflicts between parents and children?
- What approach to counseling is more beneficial in terms of improving the relationship within a family?
Other Challenges
Besides addressing the reconsideration of the research problem and subsequent questions, the other challenges included the relevance of such research. To tackle this problem, the preliminary research on the topic of correlation between couple counseling and relationship within the whole family was conducted. Moreover, it was challenging to find a proper theoretical basis for altering a research problem. The issue was addressed by finding additional information about the methods of searching evidence-based data.
References
Beasley, C. C., & Ager, R. (2019). Emotionally focused couples therapy: A systematic review of its effectiveness over the past 19 years. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 16(2), 144-159.
Davarniya, R., Zahrakar, K., & Nazari, A. M. (2018). The effectiveness of brief solution-focused couple therapy (BSFCT) on reducing couple burnout. Journal of Research and Health, 8(2), 123-131.
Li, C., Jiang, S., Fan, X., & Zhang, Q. (2020). Exploring the impact of marital relationship on the mental health of children: Does parent-child relationship matter? Journal of Health Psychology, 25(10-11), 1669-1680.