Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Family therapy on family function of couples, Behavioral Adjustment and Academic Performance of their Male Students

The aim of this research was study the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral family therapy on family function of couples, behavioral adjustment and academic performance of their high school (1st to 4th grade) male students in Ahwaz from 1393-1395 years. The students, who had one standard deviation below the mean in adjustment questionnaire and poor academic performance, were asked to inform their parents to participate in the research (related to the researcher) for a clinical interview. Then, from parents who had poor family performance based on clinical interview and family performance questionnaire, 121 couples were selected and were matched from age, duration of marriage, educational status, not suffering from acute physical and mental disorders and other criteria considered in this research. Then randomly 40 couples were selected. The research method was semi experimental with pre-post test and control group. The sample randomly divided in‌‌ to two groups as experimental and control. The instruments were family performance questionnaire, adjustment inventory of high school students and academic performance. The experimental group received 12 sessions of 45 minutes cognitive behavioral family therapy, but the control group did not receive any intervention. If necessary, the students of the experimental group participated in family therapy sessions. For ethical considerations, after the end of the research, they received three sessions of cognitive- behavioral family therapy with their parents. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between two groups in family function, behavioral adjustment and academic performance of their students (p < 0.001).