About
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Introduction
My current research interests are Couple and Family Therapy (CFT), Couple Enhancement programs, Marriage/cohabitation, Divorce/relationship dissolution, Emotion-Focused Skills Training (EFST).
Methods: SEM and Bayesian analysis.
Now leading three projects:
1.Effects of the Gottman couple enhancement program in Norway
2. Relationship dissolution among two-sex and same-sex marriages
3. Transdiagnostic treatments within specialized care, with a spesific focus on EFST
Publications
Publications (28)
Background: Statistical methods are a cornerstone of research in clinical psychology and are used in clinical trials and reviews to determine the best available evidence. The most widespread statistical framework, frequentist statistics, is often misunderstood and misused. Even when properly applied, this framework can lead to erroneous conclusions...
Divorces have become common, but reliable longer-run historical data with several years of follow-up are scarce. This study investigates divorce trends and divorce risk based on prospective data for all Norwegian different-sex marriages formed from 1886–2018, with yearly follow-up continuing until 60 years after the wedding (N = 2.7 million). First...
Background
Emotion-Focused Skills Training (EFST) is a newly developed manualized skill training program for parents to strengthen emotional bonds between parents and children and improve mental health outcomes in children. Results from several preliminary trials indicate that EFST can be quite effective, but more rigorous methods are needed to aff...
Bayesian statistical approaches offer nuanced, detailed, and intuitive analyses, even with small sample sizes. Although these qualities are highly relevant for researchers in child and adolescent mental health, Bayesian methods are still quite rarely employed. This editorial perspective will briefly describe what is different about Bayesian statist...
The trends in marriage and divorce among male and female same-sex couples in urban and rural Norway were compared to different-sex marriages. Norway legalized same-sex living in 1993 and marriage in 2009. Cohorts from 1993 to 2018 were included. The 2009 gender-neutral marriage law appears to have had minimal impact on the rate of same-sex unions a...
De therapeutische alliantie of werkrelatie heeft in de psychotherapie de status ‘gemeenschappelijke factor’ gekregen, vanwege het robuuste verband met de uitkomst van behandelingen. De opdracht voor ons werkveld is nu om een genuanceerder beeld te krijgen van de invloed van de alliantie op de mate waarin tijdens de therapie vooruitgang wordt geboek...
Background: Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) systems have been used to monitor how a client’s life changes over the course of therapy. However, if a ROM system is to be used, the system should have sufficient construct validity to warrant its usage. In the current study we sought to test the construct of the “individual problems and strengths” (IPS...
Background: Statistical methods are a cornerstone of research in clinical psychology and are used in clinical trials and reviews to determine the best available evidence. The most widespread statistical framework, frequentist statistics, is often misunderstood and misused. Even when properly applied, this framework can lead to erroneous conclusions...
Studenter som utdanner seg til familieterapeuter, skal tilegne seg kunnskap om aktuelle teorier og metodiske tilnærminger. De skal tilegne seg ferdigheter og utvikle et reflektert forhold til egne verdier og holdninger og hvilken betydning dette har i arbeid med mennesker. Veiledning av familieterapistudentenes kliniske arbeid i utdanningen er en v...
Objective: Emotion-Focused Skills Training (EFST) is a 12-week parental program based on EmotionFocused Therapy, developed to improve children and adolescents’ mental health problems.
Methods: In a randomized clinical dismantling study, including parents of 236 children and adolescents (ages 6–13, Mage 8.9, 60.6% boys, 95.8% Caucasian) with externa...
The article contains prospective data on all two-sex marriages formed in Norway between 1886 and 2018, with annual follow-up for 60 years, totaling 133 cohorts and 2 698 632 marriages. The data list the number of marriages that ended in divorce throughout each year of follow-up. The data were obtained through a special order from Statistics Norway....
These data stem from 841 clients at different couple and family therapy sites in Norway that was collected between 2010 and 2016. They all answered the Individual Problems and Strengths scale (IPS) that is a part of the Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (STIC) system in addition to some demographic variables. In addition to the 22 items construc...
This article present prospective data on all Norwegian two sex-marriages that was formed from 1981 to 2013, all together more than 770 000 marriages, with yearly follow up for until 32 years. Four different categories of marriages and remarriages were investigated: First time for both spouses, first time for one and second time for the other, secon...
The therapeutic alliance has gained status as a common factor in psychotherapy due to its robust predictive relationship with outcome. The current challenge in our field is to gain a more nuanced understanding of alliance's impact on the progress of treatment over the course of therapy. In the current study, alliance was measured on 3 dimensions: (...
Objective
In couple therapy clients often suffer from a blend of individual psychiatric symptoms as well as severe relational distress. However, research is inconclusive on whether relational change predicts symptom change or vice versa. Because answers to this question could have important clinical implications on what to focus on in couple therap...
Introduction:
Couple violence (CV) affects many, and the consequences of those actions are grave, not only for the individual suffering at the hand of the perpetrator but also for the other persons in the family. Violence often happens among more than just the adults within one family. Even if CV has been thoroughly investigated in the general pop...
Work functioning has significance for the individual and society but has rarely been used as an outcome measure for psychotherapy. Work‐related factors such as work satisfaction and working hours impact personal and relational life. More than half of those on sick leave suffer from social problems such as family‐related distress or mental health is...
Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) is recommended as a psychotherapy procedure to serve as clinical feedback in order to improve client treatment outcomes. ROM can work as a warning signal to the therapist if the client shows signs of no change or deterioration. This study has investigated whether any difference in outcome could be detected between t...
As the population of divorced adults has increased, the number of remarriages has followed. Previous research has mainly compared first-time marriages with remarriages, whereas this study analyzes 4 different constellations of marriages: first time for both spouses, first time for one and second time for the other, second time for both, and third t...
Divorces were rare in Norway until the middle of the 20th century, but have after that become a common experience. Dissolution of cohabitation is also common. Even if many couples get help from couple and family therapists alarmingly many children are touched by relationship dissolution.
This is a prospective cohort study with an annual follow-up...
Presenting data of all Norwegian marriages formed from 1886 to 2013. Prospective study with yearly follow up. Totally over 2,7 million marriages. Analyses of divorce rates and trends in the data. Predictions of divorce risk for years to come. Also presenting preliminary results from Research on first and higher order marriages.
Language: Norwegian
The chapter describes implications, obstacles, and the practical use of different feedback systems in couple therapy
The article provides insight into a research process in the Family therapy unit at Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health at Soerlandet Hospital in Norway. The focus has been on the three days intensive family therapeutic treatment which is part of normal practice in our unit. The objective has been to facilitate a critical look at oursel...
In this chapter, the authors share their clinical experiences from using STIC in couple and family therapy as a clinical tool since 2010. In addition, they draw on statements from colleagues’ as well as from clients’ experiences. The authors share stories from their clinical practice that illustrate challenges and advantages with the use of a stand...
This is a book report
Questions
Question (1)
Hi. I am running a CFA on a commonly used questionnaire with 14 items that load from 7 latent constructs. Total N is 308. The SEM shows a covariance between two of the latent constructs above 1 when standardized. However, when I run bivariate correlation analysis of the seven constructs in SPSS (as manifest variables off cause) the correlation between this pair is .71. Which is the highest correlation among the constructs. The others range between .24 and .57.
When analyzing the estimated covariances in AMOS the problematic one has .55 and is not the strongest covariance. One of the two problematic latent constructs has a covariance of .60 with another latent construct.
I also checked all variables for multicollinearity by running linear regression with all variables included, leaving one as the dependant, and then shifted for each time I ran it. It did not identify any VIF above 2.3 between any of the 14 variables. I also ran the same test on the seven constructs. Again no VIF above 2.3, so it should not be a multicollinearity problem, should it?
Any suggestions for what I am doing wrong?
Projects
Projects (5)
Pilot project:
Quantitative part: Investigate change in children's levels of anxiety after parents participated in EFST 2 days plus 5 days weekly follow up.
Qualitative part: Investigate the participants' experiences of participation.
RCT project: The focus of this study will be decided when we have some results from the Pilot study. This will be a Ph.D. project
The main goal is to investigate the effectiveness of EFST treatment in outpatient specialist mental health care clinics, and if found effective, developing the program.
Parts of the project
1. Qualitative Interviews of parents experiences of participation (starting january 2020)
2. A Quantitative Pilotstudy comparing EFST with CBT treatment for children and youth suffering from anxiety (Starting march 2020)
3. An RCT study investigating the effect of EFST(A PhD project. Data collection started January 2022)
4. A Study investigating the causal model of change within EFST (A PhD project starting in September 2022)
5. A systematic review with patient level meta analysis (started in October 2021)
The study will be conducted in the Department of child and adolescent mental health (ABUP), Sørlandet Hospital, Kristiansand, Norway.
Investigating the effectiveness and experience of the Gottman couple courses implemented in Norway.
Research questions:
1. Do Gottman 7 principles courses lead to better couple functioning from start to end of program and at 6 months follow up? And if so, for whom?
2. Do different populations benefit equally from the course?
3. Who join Gottman 7p courses?
4. Why do they join a Gottman 7p course?
5. Is there any difference in the experience of the course and the effectiveness of the course when a professional or a non-professional is the trainer?
6. How do the participants experience the course and the usefulness of it?
