Salāmat-i ijtimā̒ī (Nov 2020)
Effectiveness of Premarital Relationship Education on Difficulties in Mate-Selection Decision and Attitudes toward Marriage of Children of Divorce
Abstract
Background and Objective: Divorce disrupts the psychological well-being of children, relatives and friends of the couple. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of premarital education based on Relationship Education Program on difficulties in spouse-selection decision and attitudes toward marriage of children of divorce among the staff of the Ministry of Defense. Materials and Methods: This research was of expanded quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest and follow-up with control group. The statistical population of this study was all divorced children who were referred to a counseling center in Tehran, among whom 60 were selected using convenience sampling method and were randomly divided into two groups of 30. Premarital education was conducted based on the communication training program for the experimental group. Before the intervention and the final session, pre-test and post-test were taken and follow-up was performed 45 days after the post-test. The data were analyzed using the decision-making scales for choosing a spouse and the attitude toward marriage and analyzed using one-way covariance analysis via SPSS software version 22. Results: The mean (SD) decision-making problem score in choosing the spouse of the experimental group decreased from 231.2 (10.6) in the pre-test to 163.4 (10.1) in the post-test and 163.9 (15.8) in follow-up (P<0.001), but the mean (SD) of the control group did not differ in pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The mean (SD) score of the attitudes toward the marriage of the experimental group increased from 51.6 (4.9) in the pre-test to 82.4 (3.9) in the post-test and 83.1 (2.4) in follow-up (P<0.001), but the mean (SD) score of the control group did not differ in pre-test, post-test and follow-up. Conclusion: The study showed that the relationship education program led to a reduction in decision-making problems in choosing a spouse and an increase in the positive attitudes toward marriage among children of divorce. Ethical code: IR.IAU.SARI.REC.1398.043. DOI: http://doi.org/10.22037/ch.v7i3.25544
