The effectiveness of solution-oriented couple therapy on marital burnout, marital forgiveness and communication styles of couples affected by extramarital relationships

Extramarital affairs is one of the main reasons for divorce and disintegration of marital life and ultimately reduce the health of society. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of solution-oriented couple therapy on boredom, marital forgiveness and communication styles of couples affected by extramarital relationships.

The quasi-experimental research design was pretest-posttest with a control group. The statistical population included all those who referred to the problem of extramarital affairs of the spouse to the counseling centers of Bahar, Bavar and Elixir in Sari. Thirty people were selected by convenience sampling method as a sample and randomly assigned to an experimental group (15 people) and a control group (each containing 15 people). The intervention group underwent 90-minute routine couple therapy in 7 sessions. But no action was taken on the control group. The Pains (1996) Marital Boredom Questionnaire, the Ray et al. (2001) Forgiveness Questionnaire, and the Christensen & Salawai Communication Styles Questionnaire (1984) were administered. Data analysis was performed covariance analysis.

The results showed that the effect of solution-based technique training was on forgiveness (F= 55.63, P<0.001) and on marital boredom (F= 0.85, P<0.001).

Solution-oriented couple therapy focuses on salient, achievable, tangible, and measurable goals and effective on boredom, marital forgiveness and communication styles of couples affected by extramarital relationships.