The Impact of Couple's Empowerment Training Program Developed Based on the Theory of Love on Parent's Marital Conflicts and Student's Perception of Competence among Hamedani Fourth and Fifth Graders

Severe marital conflict is one of the factors challenging the system of family relationships and is detrimental to family member's peace of mind. It directly affects children and results in states such as self-absorption, lack of happiness, poor academic achievement and lack of belief in capabilities. Nowadays, tendency towards resolving conflicts is an inevitable necessity and using empowerment training models has been taken into account alongside individual counseling. The present study was carried out with the purpose of investigating the impact of an empowerment program developed based on the theory of love on parent's marital conflicts and their children's perception of competence in the fourth and fifth grades. The population of the study comprised couples who sought advice or were referred to counseling centers in Hamedan. The couples were evaluated and a sample of 30 couples with children in the fourth and fifth grades was drawn. These couples received 12 sessions of group empowerment training program which was designed based on Strenberg's theory of love. In order to assess the effectiveness of the program, a test of perception of competence was administered to the students with the aid of their parents. In the next step, the parents sat a marital conflict test. Another evaluation was carried out at the end of the training and the findings indicated that the empowerment program reduced marital conflicts at the levels of irritability, support to children, sexual relations, relationships with relatives, and collaboration. In addition, the children achieved a high level of perception of competence and the reduction of conflict within the family system resulted in higher competence in students. Hence, the empowerment program which is based on love can be an efficient method when couples or their children complain about the quality of relationships.