Evaluative Conditioning and Relationship Satisfaction

NCT06564532 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: REL00000176
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 144
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The overall objective is to evaluate the efficacy of a novel computerized learning procedure to enhance marital well-being among military members and their partners.

Conditions

Relationship, Marital

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Partner Evaluative Priming Procedure (McNulty et al., 2013)

  Modeled after the evaluative priming task developed by Fazio et al. (1995), the task implicitly measures participants' automatically activated partner attitudes by measuring RTs to positive and negative words following exposure to primes of the partner. Primes will be photos primes of the partner appearing in one of four orientations in each photo: (a) a frontal view of the face, (b) a profile view of the face, (c) a frontal view of the entire body while standing, and (d) a frontal view of the entire body while sitting.

  Every two weeks for eight weeks

• Couples Satisfaction Index (Funk & Rogge, 2007)

  Questionnaire to assess self-reported satisfaction with the relationship

  Every two weeks for eight weeks

• Verbal Tactics Coding Scheme (Sillars, 1982)

  Qualitative coding scheme designed to identify direct and indirect oppositional statements during problem-solving discussions

  Eight weeks

• Suicidality subscale of the Depressive Symptom Index (Metalsky & Joiner, 1997

  a well-validated measure that assesses the fre- quency and controllability of suicidal thoughts as agreement with four sets of four statements that increase in severity

  Every two weeks for eight weeks

Study Arms (4)

Servicemember and partner paired with positive stimuli

EXPERIMENTAL

Both the servicemember and the partner of the servicemember see their partner paired with positive stimuli

Behavioral: Evaluatively conditioning participant to like partner; Behavioral: Evaluatively conditioning partner to like participant

Servicemember partner paired with positive stimuli, servicemember paired with neutral stimuli

EXPERIMENTAL

The servicemember sees the partner paired with positive stimuli and the partner sees the servicemember paired with neutral stimuli

Behavioral: Evaluatively conditioning participant to like partner

Servicemember partner paired with neutral stimuli, servicemember paired with positive stimuli

EXPERIMENTAL

The servicemember sees the partner paired with neutral stimuli and the partner sees the servicemember paired with positive stimuli

Behavioral: Evaluatively conditioning partner to like participant

Servicemember and partner paired with neutral stimuli

NO INTERVENTION

Both the servicemember and the partner of the servicemember see their partner paired with neutral stimuli

Interventions

Evaluatively conditioning participant to like partner BEHAVIORAL

The intervention is a computerized learning task that leads the participant to associate the partner with positive stimuli

Servicemember and partner paired with positive stimuli; Servicemember partner paired with positive stimuli, servicemember paired with neutral stimuli

Evaluatively conditioning partner to like participant BEHAVIORAL

The intervention is a computerized learning task that leads the partner to associate the participant with positive stimuli

Servicemember and partner paired with positive stimuli; Servicemember partner paired with neutral stimuli, servicemember paired with positive stimuli

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• one member of the couple is active-duty US military
• couple is married
• both couple members are at least 18 years old
• both couple members are proficient readers and speakers of English

Sponsors & Collaborators

• United States Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth: collaborator
• Florida State University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Florida State University

Tallahassee, Florida, 32306, United States

Location

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Masking Details: participants are not told the specific nature of the marital enhancement intervention and both experimental and control participants complete the same procedure with only one exception--whether their partner is paired with positive or neutral words and images.
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Model Details: The investigators will recruit a sample of 500 active-duty servicemembers and their partners from Naval Medical Center at Portsmouth, VA. Half of all servicemembers will be randomly assigned to complete our EC procedure that pairs their partner with positive stimuli whereas the other half will be randomly assigned to complete a control procedure in which their partner is paired with neutral stimuli. Crossed with this manipulation, and also by random assignment, the partners of half the servicemembers will complete our EC procedure whereas the partners of the other half will complete the control procedure.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 19, 2024
• First Posted: August 21, 2024
• Study Start: July 22, 2024
• Primary Completion: August 31, 2025
• Study Completion: August 31, 2025
• Last Updated: September 15, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-09

Locations

US (1)