The effectiveness of emotionally focused couple therapy on perceived social support and feeling of loneliness among infertile couples

Infertility has been recognized worldwide as a stressful, critical and threatening experience of personal, marital, family and social stability throughout the world and across cultures. But the key question is, does emotion-focused therapy affect perceived social support and the loneliness of infertile couples?

The effect of emotion-focused couple therapy on perceived social support and loneliness in infertile couples.

This study was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with control group. The statistical population consisted of infertile couples referring to private centers for women and infertility in Qom in the second half of 2015 and the first half of 2016. Thirty couples were selected by purposive sampling and were randomly divided into two groups (15 couples) and control (15 couples). Research instruments include the Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale (Zimet, Dahlm, Zimet & Farley, 1988), the Adult Social Emotional Loneliness Scale (Ditomas, Bernen & Bast, 2004) and the Johnson Couple Training Program (2004). Data analysis was performed using multivariate analysis of covariance.

The results showed that emotion-focused couple therapy significantly increased the mean scores of perceived social support variable and its subscales (friends support, family support and support). Specific individuals) in the test group (P<0/05). The results also showed that the mean of post-test scores of variable sense of loneliness and its subscales (romantic loneliness, family loneliness and social loneliness) were significantly different in the experimental and control groups (P<0/05).

Couple-based training in emotion-focused therapy improved perceived social support in couples and reduced their sense of loneliness.