Effect of Premarital Counseling with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-Based Approach on Sexual Function

Abstract

Abstract Background: Family is the most important component of community and family health leads to spiritual excellence and intellectual growth. One of the debates in current society is to enhance the bases of marital life. More than half of the sexual problems which cause family life and marital relationships abolishment are due to insufficient knowledge or erroneous beliefs about sexual relationships. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of acceptance commitment therapy (ACT)-based premarital counseling on the couples’ sexual function. Materials and Methods: The study population of this clinical trial consisted of all couples referring to premarital counseling centers of Isfahan in 2015. Sixty couples were selected and then randomly divided into two groups, an experimental group(30 couples) and a control group(30 couples). Then they completed a questionnaire of sexual function. The data were analyzed by SPSS 21 using the Mann-Whitney test. Conclusion: The results of this study with the aforementioned condition showed the lack of significant difference in the couple’s sexual function between premarital counseling and the approach based on acceptance and commitment. So, it seems that performing a research with more samples and a target group having 1-5 marital experience would be necessary. Results: The results showed no significant difference between the effect of premarital counseling acceptance and commitment therapy – based approach on the couples’ sexual fanction in comparison with a premarital conventional approach(p>0.02).

Keywords

• Acceptance and commitment therapy-based approach
• Premarital counseling
• Sexual function.