Prioritizing Universities’ training and counseling alternatives for newlywed students: a step in line with the law of protection of family and the youth of the population

One of the activities universities can do in accordance with the law of protection of family and the youth of the population is to train and improve the communication skills of newlywed students. In this research, the three-level decision tree of goals, criteria, and alternatives and the hierarchical analysis technique were used to prioritize the criteria and alternatives for providing communication skills training and counseling to newlywed students. The data was collected by completing 15 questionnaires by professors with experience in the field of counseling and analyzed using Expert Choice statistical software. Based on the results of hierarchical analysis, the effect criterion (change of knowledge and skill) with a relative weight of 0.416 was superior to other criteria. By combining the weights, seven communication skills training and counseling alternatives were prioritized considering five criteria in the following order: (1) holding theoretical and practical short-term courses, (2) holding workshops (one or two days), (3) individual training and counseling, (4) holding meetings and face-to-face lectures with questions and answers, (5) holding webinars, (6) cultural and educational camps, and (7) distributing books and Booklets.