EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BEHAVIORAL AND SOLUTION-ORIENTED COUPLE THERAPY ON MARITAL CONFLICTS AND SEXUAL INTIMACY

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral and solution-oriented couple therapy on marital conflicts of sexual intimacy with quasi-experimental research method and pre-test-post-test and control group design. The population of this study includes all teachers who had problems in their married life and had referred to counseling centers in Department of Education District 3 of Kermanshah in 2019. Sixty people were selected as a statistical sample by simple random sampling method and were divided into 3 groups of 20, two experimental groups and one control group. For data collection, marital satisfaction tools and Enrich couple scale (marital conflict and sexual intimacy) were used. Also, marital consistency and inconsistency tools (1) with two indicators of togetherness and marital satisfaction were used. One experimental group received behavioral couple therapy in 8 sessions of 2 hours and the other group received solution-oriented couple therapy in 8 sessions of 2 hours and the control group did not receive any treatment and after the treatment program, the post-test was performed. Data were analyzed by MANCOVA analysis of covariance using SPSS26 software.

Results: The results of multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed that both behavioral and solution-oriented couple therapy were effective on marital conflict and sexual intimacy.

Conclusion: The results of the present study show that behavioral and solution-oriented couple therapy educational programs, both before training and one month after training, are effective in resolving conflicts and sexual intimacy of couples. Therefore, it is recommended to hold training sessions based on enriching couples' relationships (behavioral couple therapy, solution-oriented couple therapy) to prevent and solve marital problems in counseling medical centers.