The Associations Between Adverse Childhood Experiences, Shared Religious/Spiritual Practices, and Relationship Satisfaction in Couple Therapy: Sessions 1 Through 6.

The present study utilized a sample of 374 distressed couples seeking therapy to investigate: (1) how partners' adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and shared religious/spiritual (R/S) practices are associated with their relationship satisfaction at intake and (2) the rate and shape of change in relationship satisfaction over the first six sessions. The results from multilevel modeling (MLM) demonstrated that males' ACEs were negatively associated with both their own and their partners' relationship satisfaction at intake, whereas females' ACEs were negatively associated only with their own satisfaction, not their partners'. Regarding shared R/S practices, only females' reports were positively associated with both their own and their partners' satisfaction at intake; no effects were observed for males' reports. Lastly, changes in relationship satisfaction from sessions one through six were found to be curvilinear, with more rapid change occurring initially, followed by a slowdown as therapy progressed.