Effectiveness of an Integrated Package of Divorce Prevention based on Compassion, Forgiveness and Transactional Analysis on Marital Intimacy in Couples Seeking Divorce

Abstract

Objective:One of the challenges in the lives of couples seeking divorce is decline and decrease of marital intimacy. Therefore, the present research was conducted with the aim of determine the effectiveness of an integrated package of divorce prevention based on compassion, forgiveness and transactional analysis on marital intimacy in couples seeking divorce.

Methods and Materials: This study was a quasi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The population of the present research was couples seeking divorce referred to all counseling centers of Sabzevar township in 2024 year, which from them 16 couples were selected as a sample with using purposive sampling method and randomly assigned into two equal groups. The experimental group trained 10 sessions of 90 minute with an integrated package of divorce prevention based on compassion, forgiveness and transactional analysis and the control group remained on the waiting list for training. Data were collected with the marital intimacy questionnaire (Bagarozzi, 2001) and analyzed with using statistical methods of chi-square and univariate analysis of covariance in SPSS-24 software.

Findings: The findings showed that between couples seeking divorce in the experimental and control groups there was a significant difference in terms of marital intimacy. In the other words, the integrated package of divorce prevention based on compassion, forgiveness and transactional analysis increased marital intimacy in couples seeking divorce (P<0.001).

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, counsellors and therapists can use an integrated package of divorce prevention based on compassion, forgiveness and transactional analysis along with other educational and therapeutic methods to increased marital intimacy in couples seeking divorce.