
D. Scott SibleyNorthern Illinois University · School of Family and Consumer Sciences
D. Scott Sibley
Ph.D., LMFT, CFLE
About
33
Publications
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Introduction
My personal research interests include commitment in couple relationships, romantic relationship formation, decision making during emerging adulthood (18-29 year olds), and Marriage and Family Therapy theory.
My first book was published in June 2018 with my colleague Dr. Alexandra Schmidt entitled Contextual Therapy for Family Health: Clinical Applications. This book is specifically designed for clinicians who work with individuals, couples, and families.
Additional affiliations
August 2015 - present
August 2012 - May 2015
Publications
Publications (33)
The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how newly married couples construct and re-construct commitment through events in courtship and early marriage. Fifteen newly married couples, 30 participants, were interviewed individually. Through the use of grounded theory six different themes (friendship, gradual process, positive examples, n...
Couples experiencing pregnancy and the transition to parent-hood face many challenges. One of the most di cult challenges is attempting to remain balanced in their relationship. In order to discover how couples maintain balance, researchers conducted a secondary analysis of qualitative data using a contextual family therapy lens to investigate how...
Despite limited attention in empirical and clinical literature, we propose that contextual therapy is a useful framework for intervening at both the individual and relational level, and we provide
a detailed description of the process of multidirected partiality. A case study is provided to demonstrate multidirected partiality in individual and fam...
Internal family systems (IFS) therapy is an experiential model of therapy and views individuals as having numerous “parts” inside of them. These parts maintain a specific role in a client’s life and fall under one of the three categories – managers, exiles, and firefighters. Due to the experiential aspect of IFS and the concept of blending, visuali...
The supervisory relationship is one of the most important relationships in academic programs (Haug & Storm, 2014). Supervisors help provide direction, ethical guidance, and model adherence during supervision. Unfortunately, there are numerous challenges and issues that occur within supervision that cause tension and problems within the supervisory...
When clients attend therapy, there is often “mystery” regarding the therapist’s model, use of specific interventions, and how change occurs in the therapy room. Unlike therapist’s use of self-disclosure, which is the exposure of the therapist’s personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences, this article introduces a new concept—therapeutic transpare...
The purpose of this article is to evaluate the current state of studying resourcefulness among children and families and to propose future research directions. Five domains of studying resourcefulness were discussed in this article; these domains are positive outcomes of being resourceful on family members, definition of resourcefulness, assessment...
Spanking as a form of punishment continues to be a highly prevalent form of discipline employed by parents in the U.S. to encourage compliance from children. Recent research continues to support that spanking does not lead to positive outcomes for children, and can be potentially detrimental in several different development facets. Bullying and the...
This book provides readers with a compelling case for the inclusion of contextual therapy in comprehensive healthcare settings by presenting its applications to individual and family health across the lifespan. Part I gives an overview of contextual therapy, including case conceptualization, assessment, intervention, and supervision. Part II provid...
• Family legacies include relational patterns, beneficial or destructive, that form expectations handed down from generation to generation. We propose the frame of family legacies as a way for medical and mental health providers to (1) assess how patients’ families of origin influence their health-related beliefs and (2) invite patients to determin...
The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how emerging adults (18-29 year olds) define commitment in romantic relationships and create meaning from the positive and negative examples of commitment they have witnessed. Twenty (10 men, 10 women) unmarried emerging adults were interviewed individually. Constructivist grounded theory approac...
The purpose of this research study was to investigate the transition through marriage using the Stanley's et. al (2006) Sliding Versus Deciding framework of commitment. Intensive individual interviews were chosen to explore the progression of commitment leading to marriage. A total of fifteen heterosexual couples (30 participants) participated in t...
This study used the lens of contextual therapy to explore the influence of parental infidelity on adult children's perceptions of relational ethics in their relationship with their partners. A predominantly female sample (N = 411) completed a survey about trust, fairness, and loyalty within their current romantic relationship. Results showed a sign...
This study investigates the association between dedication commitment and sliding (moving through relationship transitions without considering the consequences) over 14 weeks for emerging adults in cyclical (partners who have broken up and renewed) and non-cyclical relationships. An autoregressive cross-lagged panel and bivariate latent growth curv...
The present study evaluated third-year veterinary medical students' perceptions of a communication lab protocol. The protocol used clips of fourth-year veterinary medical students working with authentic clients. These clips supplemented course material. Clips showed examples of proficient communication as well as times of struggle for fourth-year s...
The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how emerging adults (18-29 year olds) define commitment in romantic relationships and have created meaning from the positive and negative examples of commitment they have witnessed. Twenty (10 men, 10 women) unmarried emerging adults were interviewed individually. Through the use of grounded theo...