title: Prediction of treatment response at 5-year follow-up in a randomized clinical trial of behaviorally based couple therapies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Building on earlier work examining predictors of short- and moderate-term treatment response, demographic, intrapersonal, communication, and interpersonal variables were examined as predictors of clinically significant outcomes 5 years after couples completed 1 of 2 behaviorally based couple therapies.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and thirty-four couples were randomly assigned to Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT; Jacobson & Christensen, 1998) or Traditional Behavioral Couple Therapy (TBCT; Jacobson & Margolin, 1979) and followed for 5 years after treatment. Outcomes include clinically significant change categories of relationship satisfaction and marital status at 5-year follow-up. Optimal subsets of predictors were selected using an automated, bootstrapped selection procedure based on Bayesian information criterion.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Higher levels of commitment and being married for a longer period of time were associated with decreased likelihood of divorce or separation (odds ratio [OR] = 1.39, p = .004; OR = 0.91, p = .015). Being married for a longer period of time was also associated with increased likelihood of positive, clinically significant change (OR = 1.12, p = .029). Finally, higher levels of wife-desired closeness were associated with increased odds of positive, clinically significant change and decreased odds of divorce for moderately distressed, IBCT couples (OR = 1.16, p = .002; OR = 0.85, p = .007, respectively), whereas the opposite was true for moderately distressed, TBCT couples (OR = 0.77, p < .001; OR = 1.17, p = .002, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Commitment-related variables are associated with clinically significant outcomes at 5-year follow-up as well as at termination and moderate-term follow-up.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Brian R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Baucom
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Atkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University.
authors.forename: Lorelei Simpson
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Rowe
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Miami.
authors.forename: Brian D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Doss
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Christensen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D019546:Couples Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D004243:Divorce; D005195:Family Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011379:Prognosis; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult