Premarital Counseling Training Package Based on the Concepts of Schema Therapy, Self-Differentiation, and Reality Therapy on Interpersonal Problems in Couples on the Brink of Marriage

Marriage, as a complex and challenging issue, can be successful or not, depending on various factors, like interpersonal problems of couples. Studies indicated that different variables direct couples' interpersonal problems. Schemas originate from the events of one's life. A benefit of the schema model is its complexity and depth as a unique treatment. Moreover, self–differentiation is referred to the individual's ability to distinguish between rational and emotional currents concerning family members and others. Reality therapy is among the approaches to counseling and psychotherapy that focuses on concepts, such as the acceptance of responsibility, reality, incorrect understanding, and their relationship to everyday life. The three approaches discussed seem to be a good predictive for couples' interpersonal problems. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of the premarital counseling package (based on the concepts of schema therapy, self–differentiation, & reality therapy) on interpersonal problems among couples on the brink of marriage.

This was a quasi–experimental study with a pretest–posttest, a two—month follow—up, and a control group design. The statistical population of this study included all couples on the brink of marriage, referring to Tarrahi Zendegi center in Shahre Kord City, Iran, in 2017. Of them, 20 couples were selected by random sampling method and randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control (n=10/group). The inclusion criteria included satisfaction with participating in this research; being on the brink of marriage; being in the premarriage stage; the age range of 18–40 years; a higher education than a diploma, and experiencing first marriage in the normal range of society respecting socio–economic conditions without problems to participate in training sessions. The exclusion criteria included absence from 2 consecutive training sessions, unwillingness to continue treatment, providing incomplete questionnaires, and the death of a couple. For both groups, pretest, posttest, and follow–up examinations were performed. Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (Horowitz et al., 1988) was used to collect the necessary data. The premarital counseling package was administered in 8 ninety–minute sessions twice a week for the experimental group. Research data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including mean, standard deviation, frequency distribution table, and inferential statistics, including repeated–measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and LSD post hoc test in SPSS at the significance level of 0.05.

The ANOVA results indicated that the main effect of time (p=0.006), the main impact of the group (p=0.001), and the interaction of time and group (p=0.001) were significant on interpersonal problems. The size of the main effect of the group equaled 0.28, revealing that 28% of the variable changes in interpersonal problems were due to the effect of the premarital counseling package intervention. Furthermore, the LSD post hoc test results suggested that in the experimental group, the mean pretest scores of couples' interpersonal problems were significantly higher than the posttest scores (p=0.015) and follow–up (p=0.024). Additionally, no significant difference was observed in the mean scores of the mentioned variable between posttest and follow–up stages (p=0.228), reflecting that the effect of the intervention lasted over time in the experimental group.

Based on the present study data, the premarital counseling package training based on the concepts of schema–therapy, self–differentiation, and reality–therapy effectively declined interpersonal problems among couples on the brink of marriage.