Effect of Pre-Marriage Counseling on Marital Satisfaction of Iranian Newlywed Couples: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

This study examined the effect of selected sexual and nonsexual aspects of pre-marriage counseling on the marital satisfaction of Iranian newlywed couples. A sample of 200 couples was divided randomly into two groups, one group receiving ordinary education (the no intervention group, NIG), the other group receiving special education (the intervention group, IG). IG couples attended four lecture sessions given by the researchers consisting of family planning, personal health, different aspects of sexuality, communication and conflict resolution skills. NIG couples attended lectures presented in the normal preparation program, based on just family planning and personal health. All lectures were given a few months prior to marriage, and then marital satisfaction was assessed 4 months after marriage with 40 questions of the ENRICH questionnaire. Final analysis was based on 64 completed questionnaires. The results indicated that, 4 months after marriage, sexual, nonsexual and marital satisfaction in IG was significantly higher than in the control group.

The effects of premarital relationship enrichment programs on marriage strength: A narrative review article

“…Despite all sexual tendencies being natural and involuntary, sexual attitude and behaviors can be learned, as knowledge goes up, the individual will be able to move towards healthier sexual relationships. As the couples get more knowledge in sexual matters and modify their unrealistic expectations, empowering programs in marriage increases marriage life happiness and satisfaction (48)(49)(50). A summary of the related papers and their results have been given in table 1.…”

Effect of Premarital Counseling on Marital Satisfaction

“…Many studies in Iran have shown the effect of communication skill counseling on marital satisfaction of couples including a study by Farnam et al (2011), which was conducted on 64 couples. In their study, the samples in the intervention group participated in 4 counseling sessions including family planning, personal hygiene, communication skills, and problem solving skill and the results showed that the classes had a positive effect on marital satisfaction (21).…”

“…The internal consistency of the questionnaire with Cronbach's alpha was 95% (21). The questionnaire had 12 dimensions (conventional response, marital satisfaction, diagnostic subject of questions, marital communication, conflict resolution, financial management, activities related to leisure time, sexual relation, relatives and friends, roles related to equality between men and women, ideological direction, marriage and having children).…”

“…These trainings are mainly delivered in a one-hour session to get a marriage license. Since, premarriage counseling classes are couples' first experience of the healthcare system, their satisfaction from services has a crucial role in their decision to continue using the services (21). Furthermore, communication has a fundamental role in marital life and communication problems are among the most common problems among couples attending counseling and treatment centers (10).…”

Challenges of Premarital Education Program in Iran

“…In addition to engaging more senses of the students, educational media diversify learning conditions, consolidate and preserve the learned materials for a longer period, and change the attitudes [39]. The results of most of the reviewed papers in this study showed that the content of premarital education classes was not adequate [19,20,26], and most marrying couples reported inadequate knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases [27]. About 320 million adolescents and young people under 30 years old are annually infected with sexually transmitted diseases in the world and one person is infected with HIV every 6 minutes [40].…”