The Impact of Emotionally Focused Group Couple Therapy on the Couple Attachment and Marital Happiness

Subject Areas : Educational

Farnaz Kian ¹ (Department of counseling, Faculty of Education and psychology, University of Isfahan, Iran.)
ozra etemadi ² (Department of counseling, Faculty of Education and psychology, University of Isfahan, Iran.)
Fatemeh Bahrami ³ (Department of counseling, Faculty of Education and psychology, University of Isfahan, Iran.)

Received: 2018-02-02 Accepted : 2019-09-01 Published : 2020-05-21

Keywords: Group counseling, couple attachment, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, Marital Happiness,

Abstract :

The present study was aimed to investigate the impact of Emotionally Focused Group Couple Therapy on the Couple Attachment and Marital Happiness. This was a quasi-experimental research designwith pretest-posttest and control group, and the sample population includes couples having marital problems among all couples who visited counseling centers in a period of time in Hamadan City, Iran. They were randomly assigned into two equal experimental and control groups. The sample included 20 couples (40 individuals) in the 20-person experimental and control groups. The instruments used in this study included couple attachment questionnaire (Bartolomovo, 2003) and marital happiness scale (Nathan. Asrine, Barry Nuster and Jones, 1973).The experimental group received Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy for ten sessions (2 hours). Then, all participants were assessed again as the posttest. The data was analyzed using Repeated Measurement Analysis with Mixed/split plot design (SPANOVA). The results showed that emotion-focused couple therapy significantly Enhanced attachment quality and increased marital happiness (P<0/05). Hence, we conclude that Couple attachment and marital happiness can be affected by Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy.

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