The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy on quality and marital intimacy on the verge of divorce

Couples need to learn a variety of methods and techniques to create the necessary changes in their attitudes, behaviors, and relationships with family members as factors causing unpleasant intrafamily environment and the disintegration of the family hot spot and increasing divorce in the country. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of cognitive behavioral couple therapy on marital quality and marital intimacy of couples on the verge of divorce.

The research design was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test with control group and the statistical population of the present study consisted of couples applying for divorce in Mofateh court of Tehran in 2019 which through them 30 couples were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly were assigned into two experimental groups (15 couples) and control (15 couples). To collect pre-test and post-test data, the research instruments included Dyadic Adjustment Scale by Spanier (1976) and Marital Intimacy Needs Questionnaire by Bagarozzi (2001). The experimental group received 8 sessions of 1.5 hour cognitive behavioral couple therapy. Covariance analysis was used for statistical analysis of the data.

In the present study, there was a significant difference between the mean of marital quality scores in the experimental and control groups at the post-test stage (P <0.01). There was a significant difference between the mean scores of marital intimacy in the experimental and control groups at the post-test stage (P <0.01).

Short-term cognitive behavioral couple therapy is an effective treatment for couples' quality of marriage and marital intimacy on the verge of divorce.