COMPARISON OF THE EFFECT OF GROUP THERAPY BASED ON FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY AND SHORT-TERM OBJECT RELATIONS COUPLE THERAPY ON THE WOMEN’S MARITAL INTIMACY

The aim of present study was to compare the effect of group therapy based on
family systems theory and short-term object relations couple therapy on the women’s marital intimacy.
Material & Method: The research design in this study was pre-test, post-test experimental method with
control group. The statistical population was included female clients of 25-55 years old with marital
conflict referring to two Tehran psychological counseling centers in 2017. Sampling was done by
selecting 36 volunteer women who answered to MIS scale, randomly assigned to two experimental and
one control groups. One of experimental groups attended 16 sessions group therapy based on family
system theory and the other one, group therapy based on short-term object relations couple theory that
lasted nearly 90-120 minutes, hold once a week. Collected data was analyzed by using one way analysis
of variance.
Results: Research findings demonstrated both of interventions were effective on the women’s marital
intimacy in post-test and follow up test of experimental groups (p<0.05) and there was no significant
difference between two experimental groups (p>0.05)
Conclusion: Research findings indicated that group therapy based on Bowen family systems theory and
short-term object relations couple therapy leads to improvement of women’s marital intimacy in the
both of experimental groups and these results have been also consistent enough in the follow-up period
(p<0.05) and there was no significant difference between two experimental groups (p>0.05).