A Comparison of the Effectiveness of the Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge (PICK) Program and the Premarital SYMBIS Model in Improving the Fear of Marriage among Unmarried Girls

Youth marriage has become a major challenge in Iranian society. Young people avoid marriage for various reasons, and the phenomenon of marriage delay has emerged as a problem; hence, the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge (PICK) program and the premarital SYMBIS model (Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts) in improving the fear of marriage among unmarried girls.

The research was semi-experimental (pretest-posttest with a control group and a one-month follow-up). The statistical population of the research consisted of unmarried female students over 30 years of age at Islamic Azad University, South Tehran branch. After citation at the university (through placing an advertisement and invitation on the student social networks) and after screening of 53 volunteer female students according to research criteria by the fear of marriage questionnaire by Samiei et al. (2013), 45 girls were selected and 15 girls were randomly assigned to the Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge (PICK) program group (2006) by Van Epp, and 15 girls were assigned to the premarital SYMBIS model group (Parrott and Parrott (2016), and 15 girls were assigned to the control group. The data were analyzed using the repeated-measures analysis of variance.

According to the results, the intervention based on the Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge (PICK) and the Premarital SYMBIS Model affected the fear of spouse (F=38.80, P=0.001), fear of financial management inability (F=19.71, P=0.001), fear of spouse's limitations (F=28.00, P=0.001), self-fear (F=18.63, P=0.001), fear of spouse's betrayal (F=31.13, P=0.001), and financial fear (F=14.33, P=0.001). The effect was stable in the follow-up stage.

Based on the results, it is necessary to use the Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge (PICK) program and the Premarital SYMBIS model to reduce the fear of marriage and marriage inefficiency beliefs in unmarried girls on the verge of marriage. Therefore, psychologists and marriage therapists can take the advantage of the premarital training method based on the PICK program and SYMBIS model along with other training methods to reduce the fear of marriage in girls on the verge of marriage.