Effectiveness of Group Counseling Based on Integrative Behavioral Therapy on Quality of Marital Relationship of Female Nurses

Nurses face multiple stressors at work in the workplace and these problems are not limited to the work environment and can affect family relationships. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of couples-behavioral couple therapy on the quality of nursing marital relations.

The research method was experimental with repeated sampling design with control group. One month follow up and the statistical population of the study population included all nurses of Bahman hospitals, Ayatollah Mousavi and Imam Hossein Zanjan in the second half of 1397. Among them, 24 nurses who got high score on the Golombok and Rust marriage condition scale was selected, then 12 nurses were randomly selected in the experimental group and 12 nurses were replaced in the control group. The experimental group attended in 16 sessions of 60 minutes of behavioral-combined intervention group counseling. Data were analyzed using repeated measure analysis of variance.

Findings showed a significant difference between the performance of the experimental and control groups in the quality of marital relationship in the post-test and after 1 month follow-up.

Due to the low quality of couples' marital relationship, it causes widespread stress and inefficiency, and since behavioral-integrative intervention, by improving and increasing interactions between couples, increases marital relationship quality. Therefore, it is recommended that couple of therapists use this method as an effective treatment to enhancing the marital relationship quality.