Comparing the efficacy of the integrative behavioral couple therapy and rational - emotive behavior therapy on cognitive emotion regulation among maladjustment couples

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two interventions, integrative behavioral couple therapy and rational - emotive behavior therapy on cognitive emotion regulation among maladjustment couples.

This study was a quasi-experimental pretest - posttest with control group. The study population consisted of all couples with marital problems who referring to Ilam counseling and Psychological centers in 2017. Study sample consisted of 30 couples (10 couples for each group) that were selected by as a voluntary and randomly recruits to each group. Sample group was assigned to two experimental groups, including integrative behavioral couple therapy and rational - emotive behavior therapy and control groups. Instruments for gathering data were short form of cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (Garnefski & Kraaij, 2009). Then, the data were analyzed using SPSS.v21 software and statistical tests such as MANCOVA and ANOVA with repeated measure.

Based on study findings, the integrative behavioral couple therapy and rational - emotive behavior therapy have statistically significant impact on maladaptive and adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and their components. Furthermore, results of ANOVA with repeated measure indicate lasting effectiveness of these treatments on all components of cognitive emotion regulation during the follow-up, except catastrophizing.

According to these results can be concluded that these treatments improves the indices of cognitive emotion regulation strategies of maladjustment couples.