The comparison of emotionally focused couple therapy with marital enrichment program on the marital satisfaction

Document Type : Original

Authors

1 PhD student of counseling, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education & Psychology, University of AL Zahra, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of AL Zahra, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Emotionally focused couple therapy and the enrichment program are interventions that consultants and family and couple therapists have considered in recent decades, because of their focus on improving couples’ relationships. The purpose of current research was to examine the effect of the emotional focused couple therapy and marital enrichment program on marital satisfaction. The research method was quasi-experimental with Pretest, Posttest and group control. The statistical population consisted of the clients of the centers: Kimia, Besharat, Tamasha and Tohid in 1395-1396 who visited these centers due to communication and marital problems. Among them, 45 couples (90 persons) were selected through available sampling from among couples. Then, 15 couples (15 persons) were randomly assigned to three groups and the couples of the experimental groups were paired separately every week with emotional-focused couple therapy (9 weeks) and enrichment program (6 weeks).The subjects' data were collected by the marital satisfaction questionnaire of Enrique1989. Results of Multivariate Covariance Analysis indicated that there is a significant difference between the three groups studied, in all dimensions (P<0/01) except for Egalitarian roles (F=0/92, P<0/41). Results of the follow up test, BENFERONY, indicated that there was also significant differences between the emotional focused couple therapy and control groups (F=20/05, P<0/01), as well as between the marital enrichment program and control groups (F=17/18, P<0/01), in the variable of the general marital satisfaction. In other words, emotional-focused couple therapy and marital enrichment programs led to an increase in the marital satisfaction. Meanwhile, the marital enrichment program was more effective in matching the emotional focused couple therapy in increasing the majority of marital satisfaction dimensions. The results indicated that emotionally focused couple therapy can increase the marital satisfaction of couples by replacing positive cycles instead of negative cycles of conflict and the marital enrichment program can increase the marital satisfaction of couples by helping couples to improve effective communication. 

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 18 June 2017
  • Revise Date: 18 October 2017
  • Accept Date: 27 October 2017

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