The effectiveness of reality group therapy on marital satisfaction and women’s happiness during empty nest phase

This study aimed at examining the effectiveness of group reality therapy on women’s marital satisfaction and happiness during Empty Nest experience. It is a semi-experimental study conducted in a pre-post-test with a control group design. The statistical population includes all women referring to Local Cultural Center of Bagh Ferdos (a district in Tehran) in the second half of 2017 and the first half of 2018. A sample of 30 women were selected through purposeful sampling and randomly assigned to experimental group (n= 15) and control group (n = 15). The research instrument consisted of Enrich (Enrich-47) Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire and Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI). In order to evaluate the data, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used to examine the variable of marital satisfaction and its components, and the one-variable analysis of covariance was used to examine the happiness variable. Regarding the results of this research, it can be concluded that group reality therapy leads to increase happiness and marital satisfaction among women during Empty Nest experience. In other words, reality therapy can be a beneficial intervention to increase women’s happiness and marital satisfaction, and also to create a psychologically and emotionally safe supportive atmosphere.