The Effectiveness of Transactional Analysis Group Therapy on Satisfaction, Adjustment, Positive Feelings, and Intimacy in Couples with Emotional Divorce Experience

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of transactional analysis group therapy on increasing marital adjustment, couples’ positive feelings, marital satisfaction, intimacy and reducing the instability of marriage - probability of divorce, depression, and anxiety in couples with emotional divorce experience. The present study was done by semi-experimental method and design of pretest, posttest and follow-up with control group. The study population consisted of all couples referring to counseling and psychological services clinic in Mohr, Lamerd and Firouzabad cities for technical assistance in the field of marital problems in the first half of 1390. A sample of 40 patients (20 couples) was recruited and assigned randomly to two groups (intervention group and a control group).. The experimental group underwent 18 sessions of transactional analysis (each session 2 hours); the control group did not receive any treatment. Both control and experimental groups which were composed of eight couples after the initial infusion, were measured using clinical interview, index of marital satisfaction, intimacy scale, marital instability index, positive feelings questionnaire, dyadic adjustment scale, Beck depression inventory, Beck anxiety inventory in the pretest, posttest and follow-up (three months later) sessions. Data was analyzed using covariance analysis (MANCOVA). The results indicated the effectiveness of transactional analysis group therapy on increasing marital adjustment, couples’ positive feelings, marital satisfaction, intimacy and reducing the instability of marriage - probability of divorce, depression, and anxiety in couples with emotional divorce experience; and the condition of couples in experimental group in comparison with control group improved in post test and follow up sessions in measured constructs. The transactional analysis intervention and training can be used as an interventional program to prevent and treat emotional divorce and increase marital skills.