The Effectiveness of Transactional Analysis with Short-term Strategic Family Therapy on Marital Conflicts in Couples Referring to Petroleum Engineering Organization’s Counseling Center

Purpose: Current study was conducted to determine and compare the effectiveness of transactional analysis with short-term strategic family therapy on marital conflicts in couples who had referred to petroleum engineering organization’s counseling center. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental research with experimental and control groups, plus pre and post tests, and a follow-up after 2 months. The study population included couples who had referred to the mentioned counseling center, from which 45 couples were selected based on similar criteria. Moreover, 30 couples were chosen and randomly placed into two experimental and one control group. In this research 10 couples (20 individuals) received transactional analysis while 10 others received short-term strategic family therapy, and the third 10 participants were assigned to the control group. The two experimental groups received eight 90-minute therapy; but the control group was only administered the pre-test, but not received any therapy. All three groups received a post-test and the follow-up test after 2 months. For data analysis, repeated variance analysis and SPSS-22 software were used. Findings: Results showed that both transactional analysis and short-term strategic family therapy had influenced the level of conflict in participating couples in post-test and follow-up (p=0/005, F=5/92). Conclusions: Overall, it can be concluded that intervention with the two methods influences lowering marital conflicts.