Effectiveness of Training Based on Healthy Human Theory and Emotion-Focused Therapy in Marital Happiness

Abstract

Background: Psychological factors affect marital conflict and happiness; in other words, they strengthen and shape marital relations. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of training based on Healthy Human Theory (HHT) and Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) in marital happiness of couples living in Isfahan City, Iran. Materials & Methods: This research has a pretest-posttest control group design. The statistical population included all couples referring to mental health centers in Isfahan in 2020. The study sample consisted of 39 couples selected by the convenience sampling method. The participants were randomly divided into two experimental groups (training based on HHT and EFT) and control group (n=13 couples per group). The research instrument included the marital satisfaction scale. Follow-up was performed after 90 days. Repeated-measures ANOVA in SPSS software was used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed that training based on HHT significantly affected marital happiness compared to EFT and control group (P=0.001). The Mean±SD of the posttest scores of marital happiness in the HHT-based training, EFT, and control groups were 97.92±1.54, 87.50±5.56, and 75.38±8.71, respectively. There was no significant difference between the effects of HHT-based training and EFT on happiness in couples. Conclusion: Based on the results, the HHT-based training and EFT are appropriate methods for improving marital happiness.

Keywords

• healthy human theory
• emotion-focused therapy
• happiness
• couples