JOURNAL OF FAMILY COUNSELING & PSYCHOTHERAPY
Year:2018 | Volume:8 | Issue:1 (25) |Papers Count:10

Pre-marriage counseling and helping marriage candidates to find their appropriate mate is part of services that undertaken by specialists and master experts qualified and active in the field of family counseling and family therapy. Some psychologists and psychiatrists, however, who have been trained by a systemic approach and have been supervised and guided in the fields of family, group, couple or marriage therapy by family counselor and family therapist specialists can also undertake this duty and they have proved to be eligible. Unfortunately, during past years it has been observed that those organizations active in the field of this type of services, such as Universities of Medical Sciences and Police, employ experts not qualified for such an important and vital duty such as pre-marriage counseling and divorce prevention intervention. It can be warned that such processes are unethical and can be counted as influential elements in the increase on marital life disruptions and increasing the occurrence of divorce, it can be interpreted as antisocial actions or considered as ineffective and absurd steps. Therefore, it is necessary for the Psychology and Counseling Organization of I. R. Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran Welfare Organization and universities to solve these issues in order to eliminate immoral actions.

The purpose of this study was designing and testing a model of some antecedents and outcomes of marital satisfaction and love. The statistical population included all married employees of four districts of Education Organization in Ahvaz City. From this population 420 employees selected by multistage random sampling method. Instrument included Marital Satisfaction by Blum & Mehrabian, Love by Hatfield & Rapson, Gender Role Attitudes by Kaufman, Perceived Beauty (researcher-made), Value Congruency (researcher-made), Personality by Taylor & Johnson, Marital Intimacy Needs by Bagarozzi, and Satisfaction with Life by Diener et al., and Job Satisfaction by Judge and Bono. The proposed model analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) and using SPSS-22 and AMOS-22 software packages. Results indicated that the proposed model fitted the data relatively proper. Better fit and more meaningful results were obtained by omitting 4 non-significant paths (perceived beauty and traditional gender role attitudes to love, egalitarian gender role attitudes to marital satisfaction and love) and correlating the errors of 3 paths (job satisfaction and satisfaction with life, recreational intimacy and general intimacy, recreational intimacy and love). Findings also confirmed the meditating role of intimacy in the relationships of perceived beauty, congruence of value system, gender role attitudes, contrary of fundamental personality traits, similarity of central personality traits with marital satisfaction and love. According to the findings, considering both marital satisfaction and love variables in couple therapy recommended to counselors and psychologist.

Parents’ violent punishment and lack of appropriate warm and emotional relationship between parent and child are a predictor of many problems for them and reduce their ability. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of child-parent relationship therapy on parenting stress and empowerment of families with children with Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder. This research is a single-subject experimental design with multiple base lines. Among all families with Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder children referred to counseling centers in Sanandaj, four parents selected through available sampling method. Participants examined 12 times including four baselines, five lines of therapy and three follow-up lines and responded to standard perceived stress (Cohen, Kamarak & Mermelstein, 1983) and family empowerment scales (Koren, De Chillo & Friesen, 1992). Then, for the interpretation and conclusion, visual analysis, trend and stability indexes, and percentage of overlapping data and percentage of non-overlapping data used. The results showed that the child-parent relationship therapy significantly (PND = %100) reduced parental stress and increased the empowerment of families with children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder. By using child-parent relationship therapy in Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder families, can enhance family members' empower and also reduce the stress of parents and also types of degrees and education, and occupation does not affect the effectiveness of this intervention.

Beliefs play main role in quality of life and marital relationships. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of couple therapy based on the choice theory and socio-emotional relationship therapy on communication beliefs in couples. This research was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest and control group with three-month follow up. The statistical population included 108 couples who referred to Aftabe Zendegi and Tafakkore Novvin counseling centers in Ardabil in 2016 because they suffered from conflict. 45 couples were selected accessibility and were divided into experimental and the control groups randomly (thirty-member groups). The experimental groups received ten sessions of 90-minutes. Communication beliefs scale of Epstein and Eidelson, 1981 used to collect data. The results of repeated measure variance analysis indicated that there was a significant difference among three groups in posttest and follow up scores of destructive of disagreement (F= 6/24, P< 0/05; F=6/13, P< 0/05), mind reading expectation (F= 6/36, P< 0/01; F=6/11, P< 0/05), unchanged ability of spouse (F= 6/82, P< 0/01; F=5/87, P< 0/05), sexual perfectionism (F= 6/41, P< 0/05; F=6/33, P< 0/05), gender differences (F= 6/62, P< 0/05; F=6/19, P< 0/05) and total communication beliefs (F= 10/97, P< 0/05; F=10/54, P< 0/05). The results of Benfroni test showed that decreasing of destructive communication beliefs in choice theory (P< 0/05) and in socio-emotional relationship therapy (P< 0/001) group in compared to the control group was significantly different in post-test and follow up steps, but there was no significant difference between the effects of two models of couple therapy. In addition, socio emotional relationship therapy was more effective in improving communication beliefs. As the increase of responsibility and inner control by choice theory, as reinforcement of relationship based on gender equality by socio – emotional relationship therapy, they could use to decrease destructive communication beliefs in couples.

Marriage is usually the most important ground for the manifestation of intimacy and developed social interactions. Moreover, marital commitment is the most important factor that can guarantee adherence to this marital contract. The present study aimed at predicting marital commitment based on attachment styles, self-compassion and distress tolerance. The study had a descriptive correlational research design. The statistical population of the study included the women who were suffering from marital issues and had already referred to Tehran’ s neighborhoods located in Pounak, Sadeghiyeh, Marzdaran, and Ferdous districts during August and September of 1396. 120 women were selected as the sample through convenience sampling. The four instruments of Hazen and Shaver Attachment Tests, Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS) by Simons and Gahar, Marital Commitment Scale by Adams and Jones and Self-ability Questionnaire were administered to the participants to measure their attachment styles, distress tolerance, marital commitment and self-compassion. The gathered data were analyzed through running Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression on SPSS. The findings indicated a significant relationship between attachment style, distress tolerance and self-compassion on the one hand and marital commitment on the other hand (p<0. 05). The results of multiple regression also indicated that the predictors could predict 82 percent of the variance in the dependent variable, namely, marital commitment. It can be concluded that the people with secure attachment style have a higher rate of commitment to their partner. In addition, their emotional flexibility can also lead to constructive reactions to domestic conflicts. Consequently, their relationships improve and result in a higher degree of commitment and intimacy. Moreover, the people with higher rates of distress tolerance better deal with life conflicts and enjoy more commitment to domestic life.

The researches indicate the positive effect of take advantage of spiritual interventions to enhancement the marital satisfaction and psychological well-being. As well as, the therapeutic model based on Unity-oriented psychology, is spiritual, local and new method that its positive influence in clinical work and research somewhat has been revealed. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of group counseling based on Unity-oriented psychology on marital satisfaction and psychological well-being of couples. The research method of current study was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test design and one-month follow-up with the control group. By using a purposeful sampling among couples living in Sabzevar city, 24 couples (48 people) were selected as subjects and were assigned randomly in two groups of 12 couples (24 people) as experimental and control groups. The data were gathered by marital satisfaction scale by Olson, Furnier, Joen & Drakman, 1989 and Ryff’ Psychological well-being scale, 1980. Then the subjects of the experimental group participated in 8 sessions of 120 minutes of Group Interventions of training the Unity-oriented psychology. The results of analysis of variance with repeated measure indicated that group counseling based on Unity-oriented psychology has a positive and significant effect on marital satisfaction (F=3/59; Eta =22; P-Value <0/05) and psychological well-being (F=4/57; Eta =26; P-Value <0/05) in posttest and follow-up. According to these findings, it can be conclude that the group counseling based on Unity-oriented psychology that derived from Iranian knowledge and culture and suitable for Iranian couples, is effective in promoting marital satisfaction and psychological well-being of them.

Intercultural marriages are rising due to the growing global connections and mass media, and to consider marital satisfaction is important as the most basic factor in the sustainability and durability of common life in these marriages. So the aim of the present research was studying of lived experiences of couples' marital satisfaction from Kurdish, Arab, and Bakhtiari cultures cultures that was conducted in a qualitative method and using a phenomenological approach. 16 couples (32 people / 16 women and 16 men) with intercultural marriages, were selected by purposive sampling method and voluntary to saturation and were studied using semi-structured interviews. Then data were collected, registered, encoded and classified in fram main and sub theme. By analyzing the participants' experiences, was identified 750 primary codes, 20 subthemes, and 5 main themes, including premarriage processes, perceiving the presence of families, decisions about children, perception of communication and marital dimensions, perception of the general needs of intercultural marriages and perception of the challenges of intercultural marriage. The findings showed that the perception of communication and marital dimensions with sub-themes such as the vital role of support and understanding' spouse, communication and marital facilitating strategies, and the experience of perceiving the differences and similarities in personality was in center of marital satisfaction' experience. This study will have important concepts for family counselors and will be useful in enriching and promoting intercultural couples' relationships.

Parents 'infidelity is stressful for children and children affected by their parents' infidelity at any age. Therefore, the aim of this study was investigate the correlation between moral intelligence and attitude towards infidelity in two groups of children with and without parental infidelity experience. The research method was correlation. The statistical population of the study consisted of all individuals over 18 years of age with and without experience of parents' infidelity in the four districts of Tehran in 2016-2017. The empowerment analysis method was used to select 212 people through available sampling method. Data were collected using a questionnaire of moral intelligence Lennik & Kiel 2005 and attitude toward infidelity Whitley 2006. For data analysis, independent t-test and z-Fisher used. The findings of the study showed that there is a significant difference between the attitude toward infidelity in two groups of children with and without parental infidelity experience (p <0. 05). In addition, the components of moral intelligence are two components of commitment to act (p <. /15, f= 2/07) and principles based on values and beliefs (p <0/09, f= 2/94) in children with and without parental infidelity had a significant relationship. Fisher's test results also showed that there was no significant difference between two groups in the two variables of moral intelligence and attitude toward infidelity in both groups. However, the findings of the research show that in addition to the main family of culture, age, gender and developmental differences, children can have an impact on moral intelligence and attitude towards infidelity.

Family relationship and parent-child relations is a main factor in development and socialization of children. Distressed and disrupted relationship put people into suicide. The aim of this research was to investigate validity, reliability and Confirmatory factor analysis of “ The Relationship dimension of the Family Environment Scale (FES)” , and its correlation with suicide in students. The study method was descriptive in the form of correlation. Statistical community included of all high school students in Ardabil city (12387 students) that 400 students based on Cochran's Sample Size Formula have been chosen as sample by available sampling. The research instrument was The Brief Family Relationship Scale (moos & moos) and Suicidal Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (Osman et al. ). For analyzing data, Pearson correlation coefficient, Cronbach`s alpha coefficient and Confirmatory factor analysis were used. Cronbach`s alpha coefficient for total scale and subscales (Cohesion, Expressiveness and Conflict) was in turn 0/81, 0/77, 0/78, 0/77. There was a significant Correlation between The Brief Family Relationship Scale (p˂ 0/01, r=-0/32) and cohesion (p˂ 0/01, r=-0/30), Expressiveness (p˂ 0/05, r=-0/10) and Conflict (p˂ 0/01, r=0/26) subscales with suicide. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that this questionnaire has a good fitness (CFI=0/96, RMSEA= 0/056, RMR= 0/041, NFI=0/93). In regard to this results, we can conclude that this questionnaire has acceptable validity and reliability in Ardabil society.

The quality of marriage depends upon the adjustment among couples, in which by managing the content of thoughts and emotions and also raising the awareness and commitment the marital satisfaction would increase. Along the same line, the present study aimed to determine effectiveness of acceptance and commitment focused therapy on marital adjustment in married women. The method of this research was a semi trial study, with pre-test, post-test design, and a follow up re-test in 5 months and the study population consisted of married females who attended to Dabestan & Majidieh community center located at district 7 of Tehran city from April to May of 2017. Based on calling – up the volunteers in the community and after completing the questioners followed by a preliminary interview, 30 married women with marital maladjustment problem were recruited, using convenience sampling method and then they were randomly allocated into two equal groups of 15 people in each. The research instrument was Dyadic Adjustment Scale, a 32 items self-reported tool developed by Spanier. The outcome of the covariance matrix showed that the acceptance and commitment focused therapy had statically significant effect on marital adjustment (P<0/05 & F=32), and its sub-scale scores as; dyadic satisfaction (P<0/05 & F=14/2), dyadic cohesion (P<0/05 & F=32/2), dyadic consensus (P<0/05 & F=6/1), and affection expression )P<0/05 & F=18/9). This effect remained sustained within the follow up assessment in 5 months’ time) P<0/05 & F=10/9). The finding indicates that acceptance and commitment therapy approach can help married women with marital maladjustment to learn effective strategies for managing their negative feelings and emotions and committing themselves to act upon it, increasing their flexibility and marital adjustment.