JOURNAL OF FAMILY COUNSELING & PSYCHOTHERAPY
Year:2011 | Volume:1 | Issue:2|Papers Count:7

Background and aim: Most interventions and therapeutic methods seek to enhance the couples’ self-awareness, or the so-called insight levels. The aims of this study were to investigate the effectiveness of schema-focused and life style-focused group training interventions on enhancement of cognitive insight in couples with marital dissatisfaction.Method: After applying the inclusionary criteria (scoring lower than 40 in ENRICH questionnaire, having at least amid-school degree, being married for more than two years, having no history of separation or divorce) and the exclusionary criteria (history of mental disorder or inpatient, substance use, candidate for divorce) 106 couples from among the clients of public and private counseling centers in Iran’s Khoi province were screened. Then 90 subjects (husbands and wives) were randomly assigned to two experimental groups of schema-focused training (N=30) and lifestyle-focused training (N=30) and one control group (N=30). The interventions consisted of 11 sessions (1.5 hour each) for the experimental groups, the control group did not receive any interventions and was placed on the waiting list. Immediately upon implementation of the interventions, posttests and one month later a follow up test were administered on all the three groups.Findings: Findings showed that both schema-focused and life style-focused interventions were effective on enhancement of cognitive insight. Also findings showed that self-reflection was influenced by both interventions but self-certainty was not influenced by either intervention. There is no significant difference between two interventions about effectiveness on enhancement of cognitive insight.Conclusion: Schema-focused and life style-focused group training interventions may be used as an effective, inexpensive, and easy method to administer interventions to enhance cognitive insight by family and couple counselors.

Introduction: Marital conflict has an important role in unsuccessful and inconstancy of family foundation. The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of Enneagram training on marital conflict decrease. Method: The study is quasi-experimental with pre-post test. For this goal, 14 couples were chosen via available model and were randomly distributed into two groups of experimental and control. Then, the marital conflict questionnaire was distributed among the subjects. The experimental group was asked to participate in Enneagram class for 5 sessions of one 1.5 hours.Finding: Data analysis via t test and co-variance analysis indicated significant differences between the control group and the experimental group regarding decrease of marital conflict.Results: Results of the study accord to previous studies, in that each of the nine Enneagram types has different strategies for relationship with self, others and the environment.

The aim of the present study is to compare the schema-based and attachment therapeutic methods and to reveal their effects on “attachment styles” in students with contractual engagement marital status. Materials and Methods: The research was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design. The population included the students at the University of Kurdistan who registered in the marriage program organized by the Supreme Leader’s representative office at the University. 45 participants were recruited randomly from those who obtained low scores on a screening questionnaire (67 individuals).They were randomly assigned to three groups of Schema Therapy, Attachment Therapy, and Control -15 participants for each. The research tool was Hazan and Shaver’s Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ). Participants in each group took part in their related 10-session therapy with pre and post-tests as well as a 3-month follow-up. Data analysis method was one way ANOVA on difference scores.Results: The results showed that in increasing “secure” attachment style attachment therapy effectiveness was significant (p<0.002). In decreasing “insecure” attachment style, attachment therapy effectiveness was significant (p<0.042) but in decreasing “ambivalent” attachment style none of methods were significantly effective.Conclusion: Attachment therapy method in decreasing the “insecure” attachment style and increasing “secure” attachment style is suitable and it is effective in consulting young couples.

Background and Aim: Considering the role of cognitive factors and attribution patterns in understanding of marital relationships, interactions and dynamics, the present study investigates the effectiveness of group attribution- retraining in reducing couple burnout and divorce probability in divorce seeking couples.Materials and Methods: The study is semi-experimental including control group, pre- and post- test. 20 divorce-seeking couples in Iran’s Flawerjan province were selected via purposive samplings and were randomly distributed into two groups of control and experimental. All the participants completed Marital Instability Index (MII) and couple burnout questionnaire. Then, the experimental group was asked to participate in 8 sessions for attribution retraining. At the end, both groups completed post –tests and results between 2 groups were compared via running independent T- test and multivariate analysis.Results: The results showed that the mean of scores for both post-tests in the experimental group were significantly lower than that of the control group.Conclusion: The findings of this research confirmed the effectiveness of attribution retraining in reducing divorce probability and couple burnout and it could be effective for determining marital- therapy strategies.

Background and Aim: The purpose of this research was to study the predictive role of family leisure time and religious rituals at home regarding family hardiness, as well as the mediating role of family communication in relation with the predictors and criteria variables.Material and Method: In order to examine the mediating role, 125 residents of Kermanshah participated in the study. They were selected according to convenience sampling. Participants answered Family Hardiness Index (FHI), Family Communication Scale (FCS), Family Leisure Activity Profile (FLAP), and Faith Activities in the Home Scale (FAITHS).Results: Results of Pearson correlation and simultaneous regression analysis showed that predictive variables were able to explain significantly the quality of family relationship and family hardiness. Quality of family relationship also indicated its mediating role. Therefore, we can infer that leisure activities as well as collective religious rituals at home increase the quality of communication within the family, and consequently can help prevent family rupture when facing difficult situations and challenges.

Introduction: Marital commitment is an important factor in the consistency and mental health of the families. Marital commitment is related to various interpersonal or intrapersonal variables such as mental health and guilt feeling. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of dimensions of mental health and guilt feeling with marital commitment in married people.Procedure: In this study, 98 subjects were randomly selected from among the employees of Education Ministry in Sanandaj. The data were gathered by the marital commitment questionnaire, general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and Ahmadpour’s guilt feeling questionnaire (2007). Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation, stepwise regression and independent t- test via SPSS 16.0.Findings: The result of the regression showed that feeling of guilt and anxiety and sleep disorders can predict marital commitment in married people. There was no significant difference between men and women in terms of marital commitment.Results: Marital commitment and loyalty is higher in people with higher degrees of mental health. Since marital commitment is independent of gender, it is suggested that there should be general plans for improving mental health for all people with.