SATISFACTION WITH QUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL AND COUNSELLING PROGRAM AMONG COUPLES IN UR

Premarital education and counselling programs are considered as an important factor to promote the quality of married life. This study was performed to determine satisfaction of premarital couples about the quality of the premarital education and counselling program provided by Urmia health centers.
This descriptive analytical cross sectional study was performed on 50 couples referring to health centers in Urmia during 3 months. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire containing 2 parts. The first part included demographic questions and the second part included 22 questions related to dimensions of satisfaction of quality containing tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The data were analysed by the path analysis method by Mplus-5 software.
Mean age of marriage for men was 26.48.55 and 21.91.29 for women. The results indicated that education level (β2 = -0.292), location (β2 = -0.075), and sex (β2 = -0.106) had indirectly a negative effect on the satisfaction of couples. It also showed that responsiveness (β1 = 0.404), assurance (β1=0.316), reliability (β1= 0.312), and tangibility (β1=0.0207) had a direct and positive effect on the satisfaction of pre -marriage couples about the quality of premarital education and counselling program respectively.
According to the results, couple’s viewpoints should be considered in designing the premarital program. It is also recommended that all dimensions of quality of the premarital counseling and training program particularly empathy dimension should be identified and improved.