The Effect of Relationship Enhancement Training on Marital Happiness and Optimism

This study aimed to investigate the effect of relationship enhancement trainingon improving optimism and marital happiness of couples in Isfahan. The design of this study is quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest and control group. In order to conduct this study 36 couples were randomly selected and assigned in an experimental group (20couples) and a control group (16 couples). The independent variable was relationship enhancement which was administrated in 8 sessions on the experimental group while there was no instruction for the control group. The instruments for this study were Marital Happiness Scale (MHS) and Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R). The data was analyzed by analysis of covariance. The result showed that relationship enhancement training has effectively led to improving of optimism and marital happiness of couples (p<0.01). As a result of following up after a month, it was shown that there is difference between experimental group, and control group considering the amount of marital quality and its aspects (0.01) and the efficacy of relationship enhancement has remained after a month. The result showed that relationship enhancement has effectively led to improving of marital quality, that similar to previous researches. These results may be product useful information abut effectiveness of relationship enhancement on marital quality for researchers, counselors and psychotherapists.