Taḥqīqāt-i ̒Ulūm-i Raftārī (Dec 2016)
The Effectiveness of Emotional Focused Couple Therapy on Satisfaction and Marital Adjustment in Couples
Abstract
Aim and Background: Among important variables in family studies are adjustment and marital satisfaction. These two variables have a significant role in studies on family and marital relationships and can be created with the effort of couples in marital relationships. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of emotional focused couple therapy on marital satisfaction and adjustment in couples. Methods and Materials: The research method was semi-experimental and the sample included 30 incompatible couples with low marital satisfaction. who had referred to the council centers of Isfahan, Iran, in 2014, and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Two couples from the experiment group and three couples from the control group did not attend the follow-up session. The experimental group participated in 14 emotional focused couple therapy sessions that were performed by family counseling expert and couple therapist, while the control group received no treatment. The participants completed marital satisfaction questionnaire and marital adjustment test. Findings: Emotional focused couple therapy could increase marital satisfaction and adjustment in post-test (P < 0.01) and follow-up (P < 0.01) stages. The impact on the post-test phase was more than follow-up. Conclusions: It is suggested to carry out more research among different cultures with fewer or more sessions than the present study and with equalization of studied groups. The effect of this method on other dimensions of marital relationship like conflict, excitement expression, sexual problems and marital intimacy should be measured in the next studies.
