The Impact of PAIRS, a Psychoeducational Group Intervention, on Marital Discord, Adult Interaction Style, Projective Identification and Perceptive Identification

The destructive outcomes of marital discord have been well documented, but studies of the underlying processes which contribute to marital discord and effective ameliorative interventions have not been clearly identified. This study assessed the impact of PAIRS, a psychoeducational group model for couples, on individual outcomes, mediated by social support, of decreased destructive adult interaction styles, decreased marital discord and decreased use of projective and perceptive identification. Utilizing a multi-method approach of outcome embedded with process, this study included 75 participants with 45 controls and coded video-tapes of three couples from the experimental group. Quantitative results supported the thesis that PAIRS has a significant positive impact on adult interaction styles, marital discord and social support. However, correlation analyses revealed that positive changes in marital discord were significantly related to positive changes in social support, but not to changes in adult interaction styles. Qualitative observations supported the notion that there is improvement during PAIRS in adult interaction styles for couples evidencing perceptive identification but not for those evidencing projective identification.