The Effectiveness of Group Reality Therapy on Positive and Negative Affect and Marital Satisfaction in Infertile Women

The present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of group reality therapy on positive and negative affect and marital satisfaction of infertile women in Isfahan.

The study was quasi-experimental and had a pretest-posttest design with a control group and a 45-day follow-up period. The statistical population consisted of 240 infertile women in Isfahan in 2016, among whom we selected 30 women using convenience sampling and randomly assigned them to experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The experimental group received Glasserchr('39')s Reality Therapy intervention for ten 90-minute sessions, while the control group did not receive any therapy. At the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages, both groups completed the Marital Satisfaction Scale (EMS) (Enrich et al., 1989) and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) (Watson et al., 1988). We used the repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) to analyze data.

The results indicated that group reality therapy training affected marital satisfaction in the post-test and follow-up (p=0.002, F=12.27). Furthermore, group training had significantly increased in terms of positive affect (p=0.001, F=13.91) and significantly decreased in terms of negative affect (p=0.000, F=16.34).

The results supported the effectiveness of group training programs by reality therapy in the prevention of marital conflicts.