The Effectiveness of Integrated Model of Self-Regulation-Attachment Couple Therapy on Dimensions of Marital Satisfaction of Insecure Couples

Nowadays, marital satisfaction is not easily achieved. Therefore, understanding how to help couples have lasting and satisfying marriages is very important.

This research examined the effectiveness of integrated model of self-regulation-attachment couple therapy on dimensions of marital satisfaction of insecure couples.

The research was a pseudo-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design and control group. For select the research sample, among the couples referring to the counseling centers of Khorramabad city, couples that at least one of them had insecure attachment style based on the Adult Attachment Inventory, were selected using the purposive sampling. Then these couples randomly assigned to experimental (11 couples) and control (11 couples) groups. Before the performing of the couple therapy program, the ENRICH questionnaire was conducted for all of the couples as pretest. Then the couples of the experimental group participated in therapeutic program during the 8 weekly sessions, but the control group remained on the waiting list. After the completion of the therapeutic sessions, the couples of the two groups completed this questionnaire again as posttest. Thus, the data of the two groups were collected and analyzed by ANCOVA and MANCOVA.

The results of ANCOVA indicated that self-regulation-attachment couple therapy is an effective treatment in increasing the marital satisfaction. The results of MANCOVA also indicated that this therapeutic program increase the marital satisfaction based on the sexual relationship, marriage and children, and spiritual beliefs subscales.

Integrated model of self-regulation-attachment couple therapy could be an effective treatment for promoting the marital satisfaction of insecure couples.