The effectiveness of marital adjustment training on couples distress intolerance, difficulty in emotion regulation and marital conflict referring to counseling centers

Abstract

Introduction: Distress intolerance, difficulty in emotion regulation, and marital conflicts affect the quality of the couples life. Aim: The present study investigated the effectiveness of marital adjustment training on couples distress intolerance, difficulty in emotion regulation, and marital conflict. Method: The present study was a quasi-experimental study with a control and experimental group. The study sample included 30 couples referring to counseling centers in 2019-2020 that were divided randomly in two experimental and control groups. Afterward, marital adjustment training was provided to the experimental group during eight sessions, and the control group did not receive any intervention. Simmons and Gaher distress tolerance questionnaires, Grotz and Roemer difficulty in emotion regulation, and Sanai and Barati marital conflicts were used in this study. The data were analyzed by covariance using SPSS software version 22. Results: The results showed marital adjustment training was effective on reducing distress intolerance (f=142.76 and P<0.01), the level of difficulty in emotion regulation (f=146.94 and P<0.01), and marital conflicts (P<0.01 and f=426.21). Accordingly, distress intolerance, difficulty in emotion regulation, and marital conflict were significantly reduced in the treatment group compared with the control group who did not receive any intervention. Conclusion: The findings indicated that marital adjustment training could be an effective intervention in counseling centers for couples with communicative problems.