Investigating the Effectiveness of Marital Life Enrichment Education Based on Emotional-focused Therapy on Improvement of Couples' Communicational Patterns

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of educational package for enrichment of marital life based on emotional focused therapy (EFT) on the improvement of couples’ communicational patterns. Methods: The research method of the study was pseudo-experimental in which pre-test and post-test for the two control and experimental groups were used. To do so, 30 couples were selected purposefully from the population of couples who referred to the counseling centers in the city of Gorgan, Iran for improving their relationship. They were then randomly assigned to control and experimental goups. The experimental group participated in 8 three-hour sessions of group education, while the control group on the waiting list did not receive any particular intervention. In order to assess the dependent variable, Communication Patterns Questionnaire (Christensen & Sullaway, 1984) was used. The data were analyzed using covariation analysis. Findings: The results of the data analysis indicate that education based on EFT was more effective in improvement couples’ communicational patterns for participants in the experimental group, than those with no such intervention in the control group (p<0/01). Furthermore, post-hoc test shows that the effect of education in enrichment of marital life based on EFT was stable and no significant difference was identified between the averages of pre-test and post-hoc test stages (p<0/01). Conclusions: The results approve influence of education about enrichment of marital life based on EFT on improvement of newly married couples’ communicational patterns