Comparing the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Couple Therapy and Couple Therapy Based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Improving Marital Quality of Non-clinical Couples

Marital quality is not limited to troubled couples; instead, it is a vital issue that should be considered even in normal couples who do not report severe clinical problems. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (CBCT) and acceptance and couple therapy based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in improving the marital quality of non-clinical couples in Bandar Abbas.

This study was quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, follow-up, and a control group. The statistical population of the study included all non-clinical (normal) couples in Bandar Abbas. The sample was selected by convenience sampling and included 48 individuals (24 couples). Each group included 16 individuals (eight couples). The data were collected by the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Busby et al., 1995) and analyzed by MANCOVA using SPSS19.

The results revealed that the CBCT and ACT intervention groups had higher means in all aspects of marital quality compared to the control group (p <0.05). The results further showed that only in the post-test the consensus subscale, the mean of the ACT group was significantly higher than the CBCT group (p <0.05); however, no significant difference was found in the follow-up stage. Also, in other subscales of marital quality, i.e., satisfaction and cohesion subscales, no significant difference was found in the post-test and follow-up stages.

According to the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that both CBCT and ACT approaches can be used to improve the marital quality of non-clinical couples.