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Marriage and Family Therapy-

Student Research

 

An important goal of the MFT program is to create a stimulating research environment where students and faculty work together on projects that further the knowledge and development of the profession. This may involve completion of an optional thesis for master's degree students and a required dissertation for doctoral students. Students may also be granted a research assistantship that provides a stipend and tuition reimbursement while allowing the student to work closely with a faculty member on his or her research. Students also have access to the clinic's database for use in selected research projects. The data base includes basic demographic information on all clients served in the clinic; information of type and severity of clients' presenting problems; a variety of outcomes measures of individual, couple, and family functioning; and reports of clients' satisfaction with the services they received. Finally, students are encouraged to present their research and scholarly work at state and national conferences and to submit their work for professional publication. These works are often co-authored with faculty members and other students.
Areas of current or recent student research include:
  • Person of the Therapist Scale
  • Therapist Self-Efficacy
  • Depression among Violent Clinical Couples
  • Differences between Voluntary and Mandated Clients
  • Family Dynamics of Individuals Receiving Substance Abuse Treatment
  • Typologies of High Conflict Couples: Comparisons between Clinical and Community Samples
  • Marital Therapy Assessment Questionnaire
  • Review of Assessment Instruments used in MFT Outcome Studies
  • Development of Critical Consciousness in Supervision
Current Graduate Student Research, Publications, and Presentations
Research Opportunities

There are a number of centers associated with the School of Family Studies that offer excellent contexts and opportunities for student research. These include:

  • The Center for Applied Research in Human Development provides assistance to state and community based agencies in the development, delivery, and evaluation of human services programs. Faculty from the Department of Human Development & Family Studies contribute multi-level consultation and expertise to the design, execution and analysis of the various evaluation projects. This collaboration with state and community based agencies facilitates the development of high quality program and agency evaluation with meaningful results. Research done at the Center is based on the effectiveness of these programs within the community.

  • The Humphrey Clinic for Individual, Couple, and Family Therapy offers students the opportunity to complete research within the direct realm of marriage and family therapy through the investigation of significant clinical issues, such as family dynamics, cultural diversity and contextual influences, and the process of the effectiveness of therapy.

  • The Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection supports research and application on the antecedents, consequences, and other correlates of interpersonal acceptance and rejection, especially parental acceptance-rejection and acceptance-rejection in intimate adult relationships, peer relationships, and other interpersonal relationships. The Center's mission is to conduct and promote basis issues surrounding mostly parental acceptance-rejection and to formulate and implement practical intervention, prevention, educational, and other such applications pertinent to these issues. The Center is the world's preeminent information resource center regarding interpersonal acceptance and rejection due to the wealth of information and research available.

  • The Child Development Labs function as a setting for teaching, training and research in childhood education and development. As one of its principal missions, the CDL strongly encourages and facilitates research. To this end, the CDL staff is committed to working cooperatively with researchers interested in issues of family, child development, and early childhood education. Dozens of projects - from student observations associated with class projects to large-scale faculty research programs - are supported by the CDL.