The effectiveness of marital life enrichment based on the choice theory on quality of marital relationship and couple's intimacy

Aim: The aim of present study was to determine, effect of marital life enrichment on the basis of choice theory, on quality of marital relationship and couple's intimacy.
This quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design with one-month follow-up. Among 89 couples who referred to Yarestan counseling center of Isfahan from October to December 2016, 33 couples who had high scores in Golombok-Rust Inventory of Marital State (1988) and lower scores in Walker and Thompson's Intimacy Scale( 1983), 15 couples were randomly selected and randomly 7 couples assigned in experimental group and 8 couples in control group. Control group received six 60-minute sessions treatment of marital enrichment based on choice theory (WDEP; Duba, Graham, Britzman and Minatrea, 2009). Data were analyzed using variance repeated measures.
Finding indicated a significant difference between the performance of the two groups in the quality of marital relationship (F = 7.72, P = 0.008) and marital intimacy (F = 27.99, P = 0.001) in posttest and after one month of follow up.
Marital life enrichment education based on the choice theory is effective and couple therapists can use this approach in working with couples, in order to increase their intimacy and quality of their marital relationship.