Building a Better Marriage
If you have been struggling with your marital relationship, or if you would like to improve the quality of your relationship, you are not alone. Just as Jenny and Michael want to strengthen their marria
Creating Rituals in Stepfamilies
An important goal of any stepfamily is to develop a sense of who you are as a family. Rituals can help create this feeling of “family.” There are some simple tips to keep in mind when establishing rituals for your stepfamily.
Dating in Later Life
No one likes to be alone, and that includes older adults. If you are over the age of 65 and do not have a spouse/partner who lives with you, some of the following research and tips may be helpful for you.
Developing Strengths in Stepfamilies
Over time, most families develop strengths that help them face and successfully manage difficult times. The same is true of stepfamilies. The family strengths framework, developed as a general model for success in families, is based upon research with str...
Effective Communication Skills: “I” Messages and Beyond
Communication is something we do on a regular basis. As young children we initially learn ways to communicate as we observe our parent, sibling, and family interactions. Throughout our lives our communication patterns evolve and are reinforced by our expe...
Keys for Strong Commitment in Marriage
Having commitment means being dedicated to a cause. Commitment comes in all different shapes and sizes, but the most important type of commitment, for many, is a commitment to your marriage. Often couples start their marriage with commitment, but they don...
Effective Communication Skills: Resolving Conflicts
Even the happiest of relationships experience conflicts and problems (Markman, Stanley, Blumberg, Jenkins & Whiteley, 2004). If handled well, issues provide opportunities for personal and relationship growth.
I’m Not Stressed! Effective Stress Coping Techniques
Everyone feels stress daily in multiple ways. Relationships, work, holidays, tragedy, special events, school, housework, and traffic are just some of the many stressors we experience at some point. Stressors may not always be easy to identify, but they ar...
Effects of Pornography on Relationships
Pornography is not a new issue in relationships; however, the expansion of the Internet appears to have increased pornography viewing and exacerbated pre-existing tendencies (Cooper, Boies, Maheu & Greenfield, 1999; Young, 2008). One key factor in this in...
From Time to Quality Time: Making Every Moment Count
Couples and families often look for ways to find more time together and to make better use of that time. Most people struggle to find enough time in their day for everything. In fact, according to Dr. William Doherty (2001), those that care about each oth...
Finding Peace by Staying Present
It is easy to get caught up in the events of the past or the future. However, doing so only brings worry and causes you to miss out on the present. On the other hand, mindfulness–or focusing on the present moment–leads to better health, lower anxiety, and...
Healthy Conflict Management
Conflicts are a natural part of human interaction. Whenever two or more people are in the same environment for a long enough period of time, it is inevitable that conflict will occur. However, the conflict itself is not the problem, but rather how they ch...
Making Lifestyle Choices to Reduce Late-Life Depression Risk
Life is full of challenges and most of us will experience occasional periods of sadness. However, prolonged sadness coupled with other symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, feelings of guilt, loss of interest in things that used to produce pleasure, ...
Helping Children Understand and Manage Anger
Anger is a strong emotion that often leads to negative coping strategies. Indications of anger in children often include kicking, hitting, clenched fists, and a reddened face. Withdrawal, anxiety, and depression can also be indicators of anger.
Managing Stress in Stepfamilies
Every family experiences stress and encounters problems. Stepfamilies, however, may face unique and complex challenges when problems arise. This happens, in part, because family members do not have a shared history and have not learned how new family memb...
Making Media Work for Your Marriage
Increased options for instant connection can have positive and negative impacts on relationships. While online resources can help us stay connected to those we love and increase relationship satisfaction Pettigrew, 2009; Sidelinger, Avash, Godorhazy, & T...
Making the Most of Marriage Therapy
All relationships experience change over time (Larson, 2003). Even the strongest relationships can often benefit from a skilled a marriage counselor to help to smooth over the rough patches in their relationship. While the needs of relationships vary, som...
Pros and Cons of Online Dating in Later Life
As with most things, there are both positives and negatives associated with online dating. It is important to be aware of them in order to make an informed decision of whether to use or not use Internet sites to cultivate new relationships.
Marriage Principles from a National Extension Model
Through this fact sheet, you will learn about these seven principles—Choose, Care for Self, Know, Care, Share, Manage, and Connect—and how to apply them in your life.
Preparing Children for a Healthy Marriage
Research suggests that those who are married (when compared with non-married or cohabitating couples) live longer, have lower rates of physical and mental illness, are better off financially, experience higher sexual and relationship satisfaction, and hav...
Six Approaches to Becoming More Optimistic Today
If positivity is not your strongest area right now, it is possible to change. This fact sheet will explain six approaches to increasing positivity.
Strategies for Dealing with Life’s Difficulties
Regardless of your fame, fortune, or abilities, life is filled with difficulties. You get to choose how you will react to those difficulties though. Learning to deal with them in healthy, productive ways results in personal growth and peace of mind. This ...
The Death Experience: Helping Parents Understand Childhood Grief
People from American culture often have a difficult time discussing death and dealing with grief because it is a somber topic with many different emotions attached to it.
Helpful Strategies to Deal with Ex-partners in Remarriages
The process of building and maintaining a strong remarriage is complicated by many factors. One of the most complex factors is the relationship with the biological parent of your child(ren). Interactions with past partners have the potential to be very po...
Honey, I’m Home: Strengthening Your Marriage Ten Minutes at a Time
Strengthen your marriage relationship by making the first ten minutes of your interactions together a positive experience. Learn how to have stress-reducing conversation, emotionally support each other, and sooth self and partner in positive communication...
Stress vs. Anxiety: Understanding the Difference
Regardless of your background, socioeconomic status, education, or talents, you will inevitably experience stress as a normal part of life. However, when the stress turns into persistent anxiety, it is important to get extra help. So what is the differenc...
Technology Tips and Traps in Your Relationship
This fact sheet will help you be aware of some of the positive and negative effects of technology and how to protect your marriage from being swamped by it.
Supporting Others Coping with Infertility
It is likely that you know an individual or couple who is impacted by infertility. The natural human response is to want to comfort them, but it can be difficult to know what to say or do, especially if you have not experienced infertility yourself.
Have Fun! The Importance of Play in Couple Relationships
Boring, drab, lifeless, stale, dull, tedious. These are probably not the words you hope to use to describe your relationships. How about well planned, frugal, precise, productive, serious, busy? Though these can be characteristics of a strong, healthy rel...
Three Steps for a Happier Life
For centuries philosophers and scholars have studied what makes people happy. Today, we know more about happiness than ever before. For example, one consistent finding is that happy people enjoy healthy relationships with others (Vaillant, 2008). It turns...
Tips for Tackling Stress
From daily hassles to serious tragedies, everyone experiences stress; it is a part of the human experience. High levels of stress over time can take a toll on our bodies. Research shows that chronic stress can affect our sleep, mood, minds, and body, incl...
Tips to Strengthen Relationships Today
Research conducted by Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky shows that happier people tend to have larger circles of friends, experience strong social support, and are more likely to be a support for others. But this research also shows that the connection between happin...
Why Stress Management Strategies Work
Stress is a universally experienced phenomenon. Although there are myriad causes, the methods of effectively managing stress are generally the same. Why do these strategies work though? This fact sheet addresses this question, citing what research has fou...