Effects of a Chapman Love Language intervention with Hispanic couples: A quasi-experimental study

The majority of marital and premarital research has been conducted in predominantly Anglo countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which share similar cultural backgrounds and family structures. Research has documented that professional counselors who employ culturally sensitive approaches with racial/ethnic minority clients increase utilization of counseling and decrease dropout rates. The problem is that little marital research has been conducted with Hispanic samples. This study attempted to determine if Chapman's Love Language typology utilized as an additional intervention to a standard relationship enhancement program would lead to Hispanic couples increasing their expressions of affection at greater levels than Hispanic couples who were only exposed to the standard relationship enhancement program. This study used an experimental quantitative research approach in order to test the effect of the intervention. Participants within the treatment and control groups were randomly assigned. The treatment group was exposed to information about Chapman's Five Love Languages. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale was used as the pretest and posttest for both groups to collect quantitative information about relationship satisfaction and communication of affection. The results of the data analyses using an independent samples t test were calculated by comparing the mean gain/loss scores from the pretest to the posttest for the group. No significant difference from the pretest to posttest was found and the null hypothesis stating that there is no significant difference in the mean gain/loss scores on the Affectional Expression subscale of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale between Hispanic couples who receive the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program intervention plus exposure to the Chapman Love Language Typology and Hispanic couples who receive only the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program intervention was rejected. The Chapman typology slightly increased expressions of affection for the treatment group. This study may be useful in helping both counselors and their Hispanic clients to understand Hispanics' preferred expression of affection by interviewing participants, in addition to utilizing Chapman's Five Love Languages in counseling couples. The present research study, while attempting to expand relationship improvement research with Hispanic couples, resulted in a need for continued research with this particular culture.