Better Together Weekend Retreat Program to Improve Emotion Regulation and Relationship Skills for Military Couples

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are evaluating the Get Better Together GBT program, a relationship education designed for military couples to help them manage life stressors together. The study aims to see if attending GBT improves mental health and relationship skills while reducing issues such as alcohol misuse, aggression, and suicide risk. Couples in the study will be randomly assigned to either attend the GBT weekend retreat or continue usual activities with later access to an online relationship education program. The GBT program involves an in-person weekend retreat with about 10 hours of structured sessions focused on emotion regulation, stress coping, and conflict reduction. The curriculum includes lessons on emotion awareness, acceptance, reappraisal, problem-solving, and communication, using videos, group discussions, and couples practice. The control group will not receive structured programming during the six-month follow-up but will get access to an online version of the PREP curriculum afterward. Participants complete surveys before the retreat and at 2, 4, and 6 months after. These surveys assess suicide thoughts, alcohol misuse, intimate partner violence, emotion regulation, relationship conflict, interpersonal emotion regulation, and overall relationship functioning. The study includes active monitoring of these measures to understand the programs impact over six months.

Get Better Together: Relationship Education For Military Couples