The effectiveness of psycho-educational program based on Gottman’s approach in marital conflict and family quality of life in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract Background and purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Gottman-based couple psycho educational program on reducing marital conflicts and improving family quality of life of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. Method: This study was a quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population included all parents of children with autism spectrum disorder in Tehran. 20 couples (40 men and women) were randomly selected through a call to participate in the study and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The research instruments were the Marital Conflict Questionnaire (Sanaei-Zakir, Barati and Bustanipour, 2008) and family quality of life of children with autism spectrum disorder (Hoffman, 2006). In the first stage, the pretest was performed in both groups. Then, the experimental group underwent Gottman-s method group program for 8 sessions. At the end of the sessions, couples in both groups completed the questionnaires in two stages, one stage immediately after the training and one stage two months after the training. For data analysis, repeated measures analysis of covariance and software (SPSS-24) were used. Results: The results showed that the psycho-educational program based on Gottman-s method has reduced marital conflicts and increased family quality of life of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (P <0.001). Conclusion: based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that psycho-educational program based on the Gottman-s method is an effective method to reduce marital conflicts and improve the family quality of life of parents.