The compilation of an educational package for enrichment of marital life based on emotional focused therapy and investigation of its efficacy on newly-married couples’s marital adjustment

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. student in general psychology, Branch of Sciences and Researches of Tehran, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Deparment of psychology, Branch of Sciences and Researches of Tehran, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: One of the factors that cause maladjustment between couples is the lack of fulfillment of attachment needs and their limited expression of emotion. In other words, couples enter into their present relationship with their expectations and past experiences, which can play an important role in meeting their spouse’s needs. The purpose of the present study is to compile an educational package for enrichment of marital life based on emotional focused therapy (EFT) and thereby to investigate its efficacy on marital adjustment in newly-married couples.
 
Materials and Methods: The present study applied in the format of pre-test and post-test for the two groups of control and experimental. Thirty couples were selected purposefully among couples who referred to the counseling centers of Gorgan city. Then they were divided randomly to two groups of experimental and control. The experimental group participated in 8 three-hour sessions of group education. Data collected via Lock and Vallas (1995) questionnaire and analyzed based on covariance analysis.
 
Results: The results of the data analysis indicate that education based on EFT was more effective in couples’ marital adjustment for participants of experimental group than control group (P<0.01). Furthermore, the effect of education of enrichment of marital life based on EFT was stable and no significant difference was identified between the averages of pre-test and post-hoc test stages.
 
Conclusion: Overall, the results approved the effective role of education enrichment of marital life based on EFT on increasing the marital adjustment in newly-married couples.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Fundamentals of Mental Health
Volume 19, special issue
May and June 2017
Pages 155-161

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