Despite comparable levels of relationship satisfaction and intimacy, same-sex couples break up faster and more often than different-sex couples, highlighting a need for quality couple therapy. Research suggests that culturally tailored services are desired by same-sex couples and may be more effective and better received. Although efficacious couple therapies exist to treat relationship distress, they have been overwhelmingly studied with different-sex couples. Sexual minority (SM) affirming couple therapies have not been systematically developed or evaluated. The current study involved developing and pilot testing a couple therapy tailored for distressed same-sex female couples. This treatment integrates the SM stress model with the empirically supported cognitive-behavioral couple therapy framework and is the first culturally tailored couple therapy for same-sex couples to be empirically evaluated. Therapists delivered the treatment in an open-trial format to a pilot sample of 11 same-sex female couples experiencing relationship distress and SM stress. Treatment was delivered with high adherence to the treatment manual. Participants reported high treatment satisfaction. As hypothesized, participants experienced significant decreases in relationship distress and improvements in couple coping with SM stress from pre- to post-therapy. Limitations precluded clear conclusions regarding anticipated improvements in individual mental health. Participants experienced comparable or stronger improvements in relationship functioning compared to couples in a similar benchmark study. Given this is a small pilot study, results are interpreted with caution. Implications for culturally tailoring evidence-based couple therapy for marginalized groups are discussed.

中文翻译：

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同性女性伴侣的认知行为伴侣治疗：一项初步研究

尽管关系满意度和亲密程度相当，但同性伴侣比异性伴侣更快、更频繁地分手，这凸显了对优质夫妻治疗的需求。研究表明，同性伴侣需要针对文化量身定制的服务，并且可能更有效，更受欢迎。尽管存在有效的夫妻疗法来治疗关系困扰，但它们已被压倒性地针对不同性别的夫妻进行了研究。性少数群体 (SM) 肯定夫妻疗法尚未得到系统开发或评估。目前的研究涉及开发和试点测试一种为痛苦的同性女性夫妻量身定制的夫妻疗法。这种治疗将 SM 压力模型与经验支持的认知行为伴侣治疗框架相结合，是第一个针对同性伴侣进行经验评估的文化定制夫妻治疗。治疗师以开放试验的形式向 11 对经历关系困扰和 SM 压力的同性女性夫妇的试点样本提供治疗。治疗是在高度遵守治疗手册的情况下进行的。参与者报告了很高的治疗满意度。正如假设的那样，从治疗前到治疗后，参与者的关系痛苦显着减少，夫妻应对 SM 压力的情况有所改善。局限性排除了关于个人心理健康预期改善的明确结论。在类似的基准研究中，与夫妻相比，参与者在关系功能方面经历了相当或更强的改善。鉴于这是一项小型试点研究，因此对结果的解释要谨慎。讨论了为边缘化群体量身定制循证夫妻治疗的文化意义。