Strength at Home Couples Program (PTSD-Focused Relationship Enhancement Therapy for Returning Veterans)

Inclusion Criteria:

• couples must have been in a committed relationship for at least six months
• veterans and their partners must be over the age of 18
• male members of the couple report no occurrence of physical aggression during the last six months in their current relationship on the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2; Straus et al, 1996)
• female members of the couple may report that they have engaged in low level aggression during the past six months in their current relationship on the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2; Straus et al., 1996)
• one partner of the couple averages at or below a score of 29 on the 6-item Quality of Marriage Index (QMI; Norton, 1983) or a 100 or below on the Dyadic Adjustment Score (DAS; Spanier, 1976), which are cutoff scores often used to distinguish distressed and non-distressed couples (e.g., Slep, Heyman, Williams, Van Dyke, & O'Leary, 2006), or one member of the couple endorses veteran-perpetrated psychological aggression (defined as scoring above the 75%ile on the CTS2 minor psychological aggression subscale, or any endorsement of items on the severe psychological aggression subscale on the CTS2 or the Dominance/Intimidation scale of the Multidimensional Measure of Emotional Abuse, MMEA; Murphy & Hoover, 1999;)
• both members of the couple provide research consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• reading difficulties prevent valid completion of the assessment instruments
• the participant evidences severe organicity or active psychosis
• the participant expresses prominent suicidal or homicidal ideation
• the participant meets diagnostic criteria for alcohol and/or drug dependence, if not in early full remission or sustained partial remission
• female members of the couple report their violence includes the use of weapons during the past six months in their current relationship on the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2; Straus et al., 1996)
• violence perpetrated by female members of the couple produces injuries in men
• male members of the couple indicate they are fearful of the female partner
• male members of the couple report they are physically violent in any way during the past six months or severely violent in the past 12 months of their current relationship on the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2; Straus et al., 1996)
• male members of the couple have had any bruising or injuries inflicted by the female partner during the past six months in their current relationship. Criteria b through d will be assessed using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI; Sheehan et al., 1998) and clinical interview