Comparison of Feldman Multivariate Approach and Intimate Skills (PAIRS) on the Quality of Marital Life in Women have Marital Distress

One of the major disabilities in marital affairs is related to inability to cause mental and emotional problems (emotional divorce), marital disturbance and couples' divorce. Statistics show an increase in divorce, conflict, and marital disagreement, with about 55 percent of the first marriages in the United States, 40 to 45 percent in Australia, England, Germany and Switzerland, resulting in divorce. In East Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, divorce has grown steadily, as these countries are on the same path as the West has gone. Statistics in Iran also clearly indicate an increase in the proportion of marriage to divorce. As the marriage, divorce in the whole country in 2011–2014 was 6.1, 5.5, 4.4, 4.3, and this trend has increased in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Since psychological interventions are needed to stabilize marriage and prevent marital disturbance, it is necessary to conduct a trial to treat marital distress in a manner consistent with integrated communication skills. In addition, lack of research on sincere communication skills and integrated approach, led the researcher to compare the effectiveness of Feldman's multidimensional family therapy education and intimate communication skills of couples on marital quality of life among women.

The present study, based on the type of data collection, was a semi–experimental method with a pretest–posttest design with two experimental groups and one control group. The statistical population of this study was all women with marital distress in Tehran (capital city of Iran). The community called in a public call (recalled in virtual networks, family court and clinics in Tehran) who were eligible for the study; individuals willing to participate in the research were randomly selected and assigned to three groups: two experimental groups, and control (12 women in each group).  In the substitution of individuals for both groups (experimental 1 and 2, and controls), they matched in age and education levels. First, for each of three groups a pretest of marital quality of life questionnaire was implemented, then the Feldman multidimensional intervention plan for the experimental group 1 and the intervention with the sentimental training approach for the experimental group 2 but for the control group, no intervention was applied. Immediately after the intervention for the experimental groups, a posttest was performed for all three groups and the required data were collected. Finally, the analysis of the findings was done using SPSS version 23 and covariance analysis and analysis of variance.

In this study, 36 women with marital disturbance were present. The mean age of the control group was 74.88 (SD=5.76), the mean age of the experimental group 1 was 39.05 (SD=6.85) and mean age of the experimental group 2 was 38.56 with a standard deviation of 5.25. In addition, the mean depression in the control group was 6.72 (SD 2.98), the mean of the experimental group 1 was 5.96 (SD=2.12) and mean of the experimental group 2 was 6.42 (with a standard deviation of 2.25). The results of covariance showed that Feldman's multidimensional method and sincere pairs skills have a significant effect on marital quality and its components in married women (p<0.001). In addition, the results of analysis of variance showed that there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of the two approaches.

Feldman multilevel method and sincere pairs skills affect the increase of marital quality of life and its components in women with marital disturbance and there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of these two approaches. Therefore, Feldman's multilevel approaches and sincere pairs skills could be used to enhance marital quality of life.