The effect of Couple's Dialogue technique on marital conflicts and child behavior

Marital conflicts have great impact on social, economic and cultural aspects of the couples and their children. New Psychological interventions like “Imago Relationship Therapy” (IRT) have been widely used for resolving these conflicts. This study examined the efficacy of couple dialogue technique on marital relationship and children`s behavior in Iranian society. Methods and Materials: In a Clinical Trial study eighty consecutive couples refered to general pediatric clinics due to their children’s diseases, randomly allocated to intervention group(couple dialogue technique) and control group (consult usual treatment method) in consultation center. They filled "Distance and Isolation Questionnaire" and "Gottmann Love and Respect Scale" at baseline, post treatment and three months after intervention as follow up all of them. General linear Model with Repeated Measurements was used to analyze the data. In this study, scores of mutual love and respect in marital relationship (Gottmann scale) and scores in Flooding, Loneliness and Retreatment subscales of Distance and Isolation Questionnaire had a better condition in IRT group just after the trial (P<0.05); but after three months, the differences between two groups were only marginal significant (P<0.1). In Parallel lives` subscale, scores were decreased in two groups, but right after trial there was not significant scores of the groups did not difference between scores. Scores after three months in IRT group was significantly lower in compare to control group. Scores of CBCL have not statistically significant differences in both groups at any time (P>0.05). This study revealed couple dialogue technique was an effective intervention in solving marital conflicts in Iranian population but had not a significant effect on children’s behavioral profile. This may be due to other factors or insufficient duration of intervention and needs more investigation and needs more investigation.