Approval to Conduct Dissertation Research
In September 2003, phone calls were placed and meetings arranged with administrators employed by the Northshore School District, located in Bothell, Washington. The purpose was to seek interest in The Family Conflict Study. These contacts proved to be fruitful. A formal application was submitted in October to the district Testing, Assessment, and Research Committee (TARC). TARC is commissioned by the district to review research proposals through the process of formal interviews. The ten-person committee reviewed the mandatory study proposal in two separate interview sessions. Special scheduling arrangements were made by TARC to support the study's timeline. The researcher (Doug Wheeler), in seeking the approval status, invested a minimum of thirty-five hours. Permission was officially granted in December 2003 to conduct the research.
Upon approval, formal letters introducing the study were sent to the principals of five junior high schools within the district. Meeting times were arranged with three of these junior high principals. Formal interviews were conducted with two of the principals in early January 2004 resulting in Canyon Park Junior High School (CPJHS) becoming the official site of the study.

Research Project Conducted by Doug Wheeler
The study set out to examine the effectiveness of a brief marital conflict resolution intervention with a group of volunteer parents and adolescents. The study focused on how specific aspects of marital styles of conflict effect young adolescent appraisals of emotional security. Parents who qualified for the study were randomly assigned to two separate groups: an experimental group or a control group. The experimental group received an educational intervention regarding conflict resolution strategies. The control group did not receive the intervention. Pretests and post-tests were applied to both groups. Adolescents followed suit with their respective parental group assignment, but did not receive an intervention.

Pretests and post-tests were applied to both groups. Adolescents followed suit with their respective parental group assignment, but did not receive an intervention. Adolescent pretests and post-tests simply measured the effectiveness, if any, of the parent intervention.

The research experiment sought to measure comparative mean differences between the two groups of parent couples, whereby the effectiveness of the intervention could be assessed. Because of the short duration of the educational intervention and assessment phase, all test results for significant differences were based on two-sided tests. Significant differences between the two groups did not specify the direction of the change in test responses but only showed if a change occurred. Of the six parent research hypotheses, two showed statistically significant differences between the experimental and control group pre- and post-composite scores: constructive behaviors during marital conflict and constructive perceptions of spouse during marital conflict. Of the five adolescent research hypotheses, one showed a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control group pre- and post-composite scores: emotional reactivity to interparental conflict.