Effectiveness of "Hold Me Tight" Educational Program on Intimacy, Attachment Behaviors, and Marital Satisfaction among Married Students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the "Hold Me Tight" educational program on intimacy, attachment behaviors, and marital satisfaction in married students of Allameh Tabataba’i University. The research is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest-follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population includes all married students of Allameh Tabataba’i University, of which 40 (20 couples) were selected by available sampling and randomly assigned to two groups (10 couples in each the experimental and control group). The tools which are used included the Marital Intimacy Needs Questionnaire (MINQ), the Brief Accessibility, Responsiveness and Engagement scale (BARE), and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). The experimental group was intervened in 8 sessions of 2 hours using the " Hold Me Tight " program and no intervention was performed for the control group. At the end of the intervention and 6 months later, the tests of intimacy, attachment behaviors, and marital adjustment were performed again and the results were analyzed using analysis of covariance. The results showed that "Hold me tight" has a significant effect on intimacy, attachment behaviors, and marital satisfaction in participants (p <0.05). The follow-up test shows that the effect of the HMT program remains within 6 months in attachment behaviors of partner, marital satisfaction, and intimacy. In conclusion, the HMT program can be used to improve couples' relationships in general and to increase intimacy, attachment behaviors (responsiveness, accessibility, and engagement), and marital satisfaction (dyadic adjustment) for married students and the general population.

Keywords

• hold me tight
• intimacy
• attachment behaviors
• marital satisfaction
• emotionally focused couple therapy