The Effect of Teaching Verbal Skills on Improvement of Family Functioning, with an Emphasis on Islamic Sources

Marriage has been described as the most important and most basic human relationship. This is because it prepares the ground for family relations and nurturing the future generation. On the other hand, the best device for humans’ relations is verbal interaction, because humans can communicate their needs and requests through it. The present study aims at investigating the effect of teaching verbal skills on family functioning with an emphasis on Islamic sources. The method used was an experiment based on pretest and posttest with a control group. The participants Answered McMaster Family Assessment Device questionnaire. The statistical population of this study were selected, through cluster random sampling, from among all married women in district 15 of Tehran city, who were not content with their level of family functioning. The data collected were investigated through inferential covariance analysis. The findings show that teaching verbal skills based on Islamic sources is effective in improving the level of family functioning as well as subscales of problemsolving, communication, family roles, affective responsiveness, affective involvement, behavior control, and general functioning. Besides, the results show that demographic variables, education, age and age of marriage were not effective in heightening the level of family functioning. Thus, the teaching package could cause positive changes in the process of relationship of couples and family functioning by intervening and altering the couple’s level of familiarity with religious models of verbal and non-verbal behavior in interacting with one another and achieving the best style of relationship – i.e. the explicit and respectful style.