The Effectiveness of Reality Therapy on the Improvement of Couples’ Family Functioning

Background & Aims of the Study: Disorder or disturbance in family functioning is a serious threatens for family member’s mental health and community health. Current study intended to examine the reality therapy on the improvement of couple's family functioning. Materials and methods: The design of the study is as quasi-experiment research (pre-test and post-test with follow up and control group). Statistical population consists all couples referring to the psychological and counseling centers of Rasht city in 2012. Samples were selected at first by Convenience sampling  method and after completing family assessment  device, and obtaining score for enter to research, were placement using random sampling method in two experimental and control groups (N = 8 couples per group). The experimental group participated in 12 sessions of group counseling based on reality therapy and control group received no intervention. The gathered data was analyzed using covariance analysis. Results: The results show that there are significant differences between the pre-test and post test scores of the experimental group. This difference is significant at the level of 0.05. Therefore it seems that reality therapy improved the family functioning of couples. Conclusion:  The results indicated that reality therapy group counseling can improve the family functioning, thus, using this approach in order to improve and strengthen the family functioning of couples is recommended.