The effect of the integrated intervention of mentallization and educational package of building a lasting connection on attachment behaviors and sexual satisfaction among insecure spouses

The ability to create and maintain safe and stable intimate relationships at the beginning of cohabitation helps couples to experience a secure attachment style in emotional communication. Insecure attachment style is one of the most important causes of interpersonal problems in the relationships of young couples. Studies have shown that immunization of couples is effective in improving attachment behaviors and increasing their sexual satisfaction. Research by the researchers showed that so far no intervention based on mentallization and educational package of building a lasting connection on attachment behaviors and sexual satisfaction of insecure spouses in the early years of married life.

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating The effect of the integrated intervention of mentallization and educational package of building a lasting connection on attachment behaviors and sexual satisfaction among insecure spouses.

The design of the current research was a semi-experimental type of pre-test, post-test with a control group and a two-month follow-up. The statistical population of the research included all the couples who referred to counseling and psychological service centers in the north of Tehran in 2022, who were living together in the first five years of their life. Using the purposeful sampling method, 24 couples with insecure attachment style were identified as the statistical sample of the present study and were randomly replaced in two experimental and control groups (12 couples in each group). The combined intervention of mentallization and educational package of building a lasting connection was implemented for 12 weeks of weekly training of 120 minutes for the experimental group, but the couples of the control group did not receive any intervention. To collect data, questionnaires of Relationship Scales (Bartholomew and Horotiz, 1991), sexual Satisfaction (Larson et al., 1998) and Brief Accessibility, Responsiveness and Engagement Scale (Sandberg et al., 2012) were used. The data were analyzed using the method of analysis of variance with repeated measurements and Benferoni's post hoc test and SPSS25 software.

The findings of this research showed that the integrated intervention of mentalization and the educational package of building a stable bond has a positive and significant effect on the attachment behaviors and sexual satisfaction of couples (p<0.01) and the results have continued after two months of follow-up.

According to the obtained results, it seems that couple therapists can use the integrated intervention of mentallization and educational package of building a lasting connection to increase sexual satisfaction and optimize attachment behaviors in couples with insecure attachment style who are in the early years of life together.