The effectiveness of solution - focused therapy on attitudes toward marital infidelity and marital intimacy of married people

Attitudes toward infidelity and intimacy are variables that can play a significant role in the tendency to marital infidelity in couples. But does solution-focused therapy help reducing attitudes toward marital infidelity and improving the marital intimacy of married people?

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Solution-Focused Therapy on attitudes toward marital infidelity and marital intimacy of married people in Bushehr.

The present study was single case experimental design of multiple baseline. The statistical population of the study included couples referring to the Masire Zendeghi Counseling Center in 2019. 4 couples (8 people) were selected by voluntary – purpose sampling. Research tools include: Whatley (2006) Attitudes Toward Infidelity Scale, Bagarozzi (2001) Marital Intimacy Questionnaire and 8 sessions of 90-minute solution-focused therapy by Steve de Shazer method (Azizi & Ghasemi, 2017). Data were analyzed by visual mapping, reliable change index and improvement rate formula.

Solution-Focused Therapy reduced the variable of attitudes toward marital infidelity (%23/22 improvement) and its effect was maintained until the end of the two-month follow-up period (%20/07 improvement). Solution-Focused Therapy could increase the marital intimacy of couples (%14/64 improvement), the effect of which was maintained until the end of the follow-up period (%12/61 improvement). Their change in reliable index also showed that these changes were significant
(P< 0/05).

The results of analysis of research data revealed that solution- Focused Therapy is effective in reducing attitudes toward marital infidelity and increasing marital intimacy of married people