Research News
columns.uga.edu Feb. 2, 2015
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Digest ‘Maximizing Study Abroad’ author to give presentation on Feb. 4
Andrew Davis Tucker
Justin Lavner, an assistant professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences psychology department, led a study that found that the severity and number of married couples’ overall problems stay stable over time, even as their relationship dissatisfaction grows.
Satisfaction not guaranteed Psychology study finds that marital problems remain stable, even as dissatisfaction grows
By Alan Flurry
aflurry@uga.edu
A new study authored by a UGA psychologist shows that the severity and number of married couples’ overall problems stay stable over time, even as their relationship dissatisfaction grows. The research published in the Journal of Family Psychology suggests a departure from conventional wisdom, both on the part of the public and in the research community. “It was kind of a surprise. On the one hand, our study disproves what the researchers thought: That if satisfaction is declining, problems must be increasing,” said Justin Lavner, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences psychology department. “But it also disproves what a lot of the public is thinking: That problems are going to get better—that once people get married things are going to improve. These positive and optimistic expectations end up not mapping onto reality.”
While problems and conflicts in marriage long have been thought to be inevitable, very few studies have examined how newlywed couples’ issues change as marriage progresses. “The vast majority of people get married during their lifetimes, and what is known is that, on average, satisfaction declines,” Lavner said. “So the question is, how do couples’ problems actually change? So many people enter marriage happily, but then go on to struggle. What explains that disconnect?” The study used data from 169 newlywed couples assessed eight times over the first four years of marriage to examine how couples’ marital problems changed. Ratings of 19 specific problems indicated that couples’ difficulties in areas such as in-laws, household management, amount of time spent together and unrealistic expectations do not change. The only area that showed consistent change for husbands and wives was showing affection, which worsened on average. Overall, the total severity and
number of couples’ problems remained stable over the four years, even though couples’ relationship satisfaction declined on average. Lavner and co-authors Benjamin Karney and Thomas Bradbury from the University of California, Los Angeles, hypothesize that instead of any change in the conflicts, it is couples’ drop in tolerance for their problems that leads the decline in satisfaction. “The advice we would give is to pay attention and to talk about what’s going on, because it’s not going to improve just on its own,” said Lavner, who is a specialist in family and couple relationships. “Have the real conversation about the state of the marriage and the challenges for you, as well as the strengths, to build on those. But talk about the challenges, and if you decide you need help, couples therapy is a good option. “There is this idea that relationships don’t need maintenance,” Lavner also said. “People say, ‘We have a good relationship, so that should just protect itself.’ Well, it’s pretty clear that’s not true.”
School of Public and International Affairs
Researchers to study impact of painkiller abuse policies By Caroline Paczkowski cparis@uga.edu
State policies that curb the abuse of opioid prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin may be having some unintended side effects and hurting those who need the medications the most. Researchers in the UGA School of Public and International Affairs are using a $150,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to evaluate whether prescription drug monitoring programs in place in most states are keeping patients who need opioids from receiving them. The grant program, through the foundation’s Public Health Law Research program, is designed to provide funding for studies that analyze or evaluate laws and their effect on public health. “With prescription drug monitoring programs covering nearly every state, they have the potential to have a widespread effect on people’s access to important therapies for pain, yet no one has analyzed the relationship between the monitoring programs and pain management,” said Courtney
Yarbrough, a second-year doctoral student in the public administration and policy department. “The grant gives us the opportunity to explore the implications of these laws in detail and to provide objective information to policymakers and states as they continue to update their programs.” Yarbrough and W. David Bradford, the George D. Busbee Professor in Public Policy in the public administration and policy department, are collaborators on the grant. “Opioids fall under the Controlled Substances Act because of their potential to be addictive, and they can be very dangerous if taken inappropriately,” Bradford said. “Opioids have become a major public health concern in recent years. Between 1999 and 2010, sales of opioid analgesics increased by more than 300 percent, and opioid overdose deaths rose 265 percent for men and 415 percent for women.” Most states have responded to the epidemic by implementing prescription drug monitoring programs, an electronic registry where doctors and pharmacists must report opioid prescriptions written and dispensed. The purpose of the
programs is to monitor behavior and detect either inappropriate use by patients or inappropriate prescribing or dispensing by health care providers. For many patients, opioids are the only feasible treatments for their pain. Prescription drug monitoring programs might have an adverse effect on pain management if they restrict access to drugs for people who need them by creating stigmas surrounding the drugs, discouraging doctors from prescribing them or making them more costly to obtain, Bradford said. Bradford and Yarbrough’s study will use data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, which tracks Medicare patients over time to examine changes in patients’ pain outcomes before and after prescription drug monitoring programs are implemented in their states. With this very rich data, the effects of the monitoring programs will be analyzed on a variety of patients— such as nursing home, hospice or cancer patients—who might be particularly vulnerable to changes in opioid access. The study also will explore the differential effects of some state-to-state variations in monitoring programs.
Andrew D. Cohen, author of the Maximizing Study Abroad guidebook will visit UGA for a presentation and conversation. His talk, “Enhancing Students’ Language and Culture Learning in Study Abroad,” will be held Feb. 4 at 3 p.m. in Room 150 of the Miller Learning Center. The hour-long event is open free to the public. A professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota, Cohen will describe the development at Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research on Language Acquisition of the Maximizing Study Abroad student guidebook and the companion guidebook for program professionals and teachers. More than 50,000 copies of the student guidebook have been purchased over the last decade. Cohen’s visit is sponsored by the Office of International Education in collaboration with the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute.
‘Georgia Review’ to present Feb. 4 reading by poet Noah Blaustein
The Georgia Review at UGA will present a reading by Noah Blaustein Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. at Ciné, located at 234. W. Hancock Ave. He is the second of three readers on the 2014-15 Georgia Poetry Circuit. The reading is open free to the public, and the poet’s books will be available courtesy of Avid Bookshop. Blaustein, the author of Flirt, has published poems in the Los Angeles Review, the Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, Harvard Review, Orion, Pleiades and many other journals. His anthology Motion: American Sports Poems was an editor’s pick of National Public Radio and The Boston Globe, and a Librarian’s Pick of the New York Public Library. The Georgia Poetry Circuit is a consortium of colleges and universities that annually brings three poets of national reputation to its member campuses, providing important access to the literary arts for Georgia residents across the state. The Georgia Review has been the UGA liaison to the circuit since the latter’s founding in 1985.
Philosophy colloquia series to resume
As part of its fall 2014-spring 2015 colloquia series, the philosophy department in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences will present lectures by faculty members from Cornell and Columbia universities. Both talks are open free to the public. Karen Bennett, a professor in Cornell University’s Sage School of Philosophy, will lead the first colloquium Feb. 6 at 3:30 p.m. in Room 205S of Peabody Hall. On Feb. 13, Frederick Neuhouser, a professor of philosophy in Columbia University’s Barnard College, will lead the colloquium “Social Ontology and the Possibility of Pathology.” Part of the Scott and Heather Kleiner Lecture Series, Neuhouser’s talk will be followed by a reception.
NPPA headquarters will move to UGA
The National Press Photographers Association is relocating its headquarters to UGA. NPPA is the voice of visual journalists, representing photographers, videographers, multimedia journalists, editors, designers, visual managers and academicians, with nearly 6,000 members nationwide and around the world. The association’s move will provide the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication’s growing photojournalism department access to resources for students including contact with visiting professionals, participation in workshops taught by NPPA staff and members and employment opportunities, including the potential to work with the organization’s News Photographer magazine and website. The relocation also will allow Grady College’s research faculty to access the association’s Best of Photojournalism contest entries for study.
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