The Effects of Problems-Based Intervention on Couples' Problems for Improving Marital Satisfaction

Marital conflict also has severe negative consequences for the family and children as the third side of the relationship. It has consequences, such as failed marriage and the repetition of patterns learned from parents' lives, high odds of personality disorders, anxiety, depression and adolescent delinquency, and high school problems for adolescents. The rising trends of divorce are considered the hallmarks of changes in the family in recent decades. The present study was necessary to conduct because the family is among the main institutions. Moreover, social elements and marital satisfaction, and quality of life of couples significantly impact their marital and individual interactions. Furthermore, the quality of marital relations and marital intimacy are essential constructs of marital life and greatly affect marital relations. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to these structures of married life and provide interventions to improve and enhance them. The present study aimed to determine the effects of an intervention protocol based on couple problems on improving marital satisfaction.

This was a quasi–experimental study with pretest–posttest and a control group design. The statistical population of the study consisted of all Turkmen couples. After implementing the ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale (Fowers & Olson, 1993) and scoring, 20 couples with a marital satisfaction score of less than 50 were identified and randomly assigned into the experimental and control groups (n=10 couples/group). The ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale (Fowers & Olson, 1993) was performed in the pretest and posttest. The experimental group received an intervention based on a couple of problems for eight 90–minute sessions. The intervention was derived from studying the theoretical background concerning marital satisfaction and semi–structured interviews with couples and experts and identifying categories as well as studying approaches and theories related to each factor, especially couples' relationship models and approaches. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, including mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics, including univariate Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), were used in SPSS at the significance level of 0.05.

The obtained results suggested that after controlling the pretest scores, there was a significant difference between the study groups in the mean posttest scores of marital satisfaction. Thus, the provided intervention improved contractual response (p<0.001), marital satisfaction (p<0.001), personality issues (p<0.001), marital relationship (p<0.001), conflict resolution (p<0.001), financial management (p<0.001), leisure activities (p<0.001), sex (p<0.001), marriage, children, relatives and friends (p<0.001), egalitarian roles (p<0.001), and ideological orientation (p<0.001) in the experimental group. Eta–squared of contractual response, marital satisfaction, personality issues, marital relationship, conflict resolution, financial management, egalitarian roles, leisure activities, sex, marriage and children, relatives and friends, and ideological orientation were calculated to be 0.50, 0.49, 0.40, 0.67, 0.58, 0.30, 0.62, 0.23, 0.42, 0.25, 0.39, and 0.20, respectively.

Based on the current study findings, the intervention positively influenced marital satisfaction; therefore, this intervention can be used to improve couples' problems.