Cognitive-Behavioral Marital Skills Training: Is it Effective on Positive Feelings Toward Spouse and Interpersonal Trust in Married Women?

Abstract

Training couples is one of the ways to enrich their relationships. The present research set out to study the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral marital skills training on positive feelings toward spouse and interpersonal trust of married women. This quasi-experimental study used the pretest–posttest design with the control group. The statistical population of this paper was all married women who were visiting an educational center in Arak, Iran. Questionnaires were given to 70 married women. Thirty-nine attendees scored lower than average. Thirty out of 39 participated in the study voluntarily. O'Leary et al. positive feelings toward spouse questionnaire and Gorge and Swap Interpersonal Trust Questionnaire were used to collect data. The training course was held in 10 sessions of 90 min 2 times per week for the experimental group. The results of covariance analysis showed that the scores of the positive feelings toward spouse and interpersonal trust in the experimental group had increased significantly after training ( P<.05) compared to the control group. Cognitive-behavioral marital skills training seems to be an appropriate intervention to improve positive feelings toward spouse and interpersonal trust of married women. Therefore, couple therapists, psychologists, and educators can use cognitive-behavioral marital skills training for couples and people about to get married.