An investigation of counseling effectiveness on enhancing relationship satisfaction: Focus on heterosexual, lesbian, gay and bisexual couples

This study investigated the effectiveness of counseling on relationship satisfaction. The participants were classified as those couples who had received counseling and those couples who did not receive counseling. In order to assess the effectiveness of counseling in enhancing relationship satisfaction, a comparative study was conducted with heterosexual, lesbian, gay, and bisexual couples. The Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) designed by Hendrick (1988) was used to assess relationship satisfaction in heterosexual, lesbian, gay, and bisexual couples. Three hypotheses were tested using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The central question asked whether a difference existed in overall relationship satisfaction between couples who received counseling and couples who did not. A sample total of 127 participated in the research. Most of the respondents were residing in the United States with the remainder residing in Canada. The participants' ethnicity varied from Caucasian, Asian, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander.