Investigating the Effectiveness of Combining Contextual and Structural Family Therapies on Cohesion and Coping Strategies of Couples with Marital Dissatisfaction

Abstract

Aim: The present study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of combining contextual and structural family therapies on cohesion and coping strategies of couples with marital dissatisfaction.
 Methods: This ‎experimental ‎research study utilized a pretest-‎posttest and two-month follow-‎up, with ‎control group design. The research population consisted of all couples with marital dissatisfaction who referred to family counseling centers in city of Birjand during the first 6 months of 2019. Furthermore, 20 couples with marital dissatisfaction were selected as the participants of the study using convenience and purposive sampling and were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control groups (10 couples in each group). The experimental group received the treatment for ten 90-minute weekly ‎sessions and the control group received no intervention during this time. The research instruments included the Lazarus and Folkman (1988) Coping Strategies Questionnaire and The Olson, Portner and Levy (1996) Cohesion Questionnaire, which were administered to the participants in the pretest, post-test and follow-up. To analyze the data, repeated-measures ‎ANOVA‎ was used.
 Results: The research findings demonstrated that the combination of contextual and structural family therapies was effective regarding cohesion and coping strategies of couples with marital unsatisfaction. It should be noted that the persistence of the treatment effect was maintained after two months (p<0.05).
 Conclusion: Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the combination of contextual and structural family therapies increased cohesion and problem-oriented coping strategies of maladjusted couples in the experimental group, compared to the control group.