The Effectiveness of Marriage Enrichment Training of TIME Plan on Improving Marital Intimacy and Women’s Psychological Security

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the Training in Marriage Enrichment (TIME) plan on increasing marital intimacy and psychological security of married women. 

The present research was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The study subjects (40 married women living in Mashhad City, Iran) were selected for the TIME plan with the available sampling method and according to the criteria for accepting couples. Then, they were randomly allocated to two equal groups. Of these, 20 were in the experimental group and 20 in the control group. The experimental group, along with regular medical care, received TIME plan for 8 weekly sessions of 2 hours (from May up to the end of July 2021) in the Psychology Clinic of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad City, Iran. The control group received only regular medical care in this period. Both groups responded to the Iranian version of the Bagarozzi marital intimacy needs questionnaire, and Maslow’s psychological security-insecurity questionnaire before the intervention (pretest) and immediately after the intervention (posttest).

After controlling the subjects’ age and education, the results of the statistical analysis showed a significant effect of the TIME plan on increasing the marital intimacy of women who were in the experimental group compared to the control group (P=0.001). Nevertheless, this plan did not increase women’s psychological security (P>0.05).

The findings of this research show the importance and impact of the TIME plan training on increasing women’s marital intimacy, but it does not increase women’s psychological security. Therefore, in marriage counseling and interventions, it is possible to use the educational package of the TIME plan to improve the relationship of couples and increase their intimacy.