The Effectiveness of Teaching Stress-coping Strategies to Enhance Marital Satisfaction of Women After Partners’ Extramarital Affairs

Abstract

One of the major sources of stress in marital relationships is extramarital affairs of couples. The high frequency of this problem happening in everyday life and the great deal of stress to cope with demonstrate the significance of conducting research in this context. This study examines the effectiveness of teaching stress-coping strategies to enhance the marital satisfaction of the victim female after male's extramarital affairs. A research sample of 20 married women is considered for this purpose. Patients have referred to two well-recognized counseling centers in Tehran to discuss the problem of their husbands’ extramarital affairs. Two questionnaires are used to collect the appropriate data from patients including a well-recognized marital satisfaction questionnaire and a researcher-made questionnaire. The surprising results of the T - test analysis, which contradict with the findings of many previous studies, suggest that stress-coping training sessions over a three-month period have not been an effective approach in enhancing marital satisfaction of victim women. The findings of this research call for developing more effective approaches for teaching stress-coping strategies for women facing husbands’ extramarital affairs.