The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral couple therapy on love and marital burnout in couples with marital conflict

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran.

2 Aja University of Medical Sciences, Medicine Faculty, Clinical Psychology Department, Tehran, Iran.

3 Department of Family and sexual health, Faculty of Humanities, Shahed University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

4 Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Shahed University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral couple therapy on love and marital burnout in couples with marital conflict. This study was quasi-experimental with pre-posttest design with a control group. The population of this study included all couples with marital conflict referring to counseling and psychology clinics in Tehran in 2018. The sample in this study was 40 couples with marital conflict referring to two counseling and psychology clinics of Tehran in 2018 who were selected by availability sampling and were divided into two experimental and control groups (20 for each group). Dyadic Adjustment Scale Couple Burnout Measure and Sternberg Love Questionnaire were used for data collection. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used for data analysis using SPSS-22 software. The results showed that cognitive-behavioral couple therapy had a significant effect on love and marital burnout (p < .001). Based on these results, it can be said that dysfunctional cognitions of couples and emotions caused by negative cognitions lead to ineffective behaviors and marital conflict. Therefore, cognitive-behavioral couple therapy can reduce ineffective behaviors in couples by targeting people's cognitions and emotions, leading to increased love and reduced marital burnout.

Keywords


Basharpoor, S., Mohammadi, N., & Sadeghivelni, Z. (2015). The role of emotional control and relational beliefs in predicting couple burnout. Journal of Social Psychology research, 5(17), 52-64.
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