تأثیر زوج درمانی هیجان‌مدار بر تاب‌آوری، هوش عاطفی و ابرازگری هیجانی زوجین تحت پوشش بهزیستی شهر خرم آباد

The effect of emotion-oriented couple therapy on resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expression of couples covered by the welfare of Khorram Abad city

Marziyeh Mohammad Panah [1],  Zahra Tanha,^*[2]  Fatemeh Babaeimotlagh[3]

[1] - MA in general psychology, Azad Islamic Knowledge, Borujerd branch

[1] - crossponding author, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Khorramabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khorram Abad, Iran, tanha_zahra1986@yahoo.com

[1] - MA in clinical psychology, Department of psychology, Faculty of Humanistic Sciences, Science and research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: The health of the family depends on the psychological health of the couple. Having high degrees of resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness of couples plays an important role in emotional interactions and cohesion of married life. Various treatments have been investigated to improve the level of resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness, many of which have not been associated with positive results, and it is still one of the main problems of couples related to such issues. It is based on this, the aim of the present research was to investigate the effectiveness of emotional couple therapy on resilience, emotional intelligence, and emotional expression of couples covered by the welfare of Khorram Abad city.

Research method: The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with an unequal control group, and the statistical population of this research was all couples covered by the welfare of Khorram Abad city, who referred to Khorram Abad welfare office during the years 1400-1401, and the sample It included 45 couples (30 couples for the experimental group and 15 couples for the control group), which were selected using available sampling method. Then, the members of the experimental group underwent emotion-oriented therapy for 10 sessions, and the control group did not receive any therapy. Research tools included resilience questionnaires by Conner and Davidson, emotional intelligence by Goleman (1998) and emotional expressiveness by King and Emmons. The emotion-oriented couple therapy protocol taken from Johnson's couple therapy book was also considered as a therapeutic intervention method. The type of statistical method of this research was multivariate covariance analysis.

Findings: The findings showed that emotional couple therapy increases the resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness of couples (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The result is that emotion-oriented couple therapy is effective on couples' resilience, emotional intelligence, and emotional expressiveness, and as a suitable treatment method for improving marital relationships, especially issues based on emotions. It is recommended in psychotherapy and counseling centers, but the generalization of the results to other societies requires a more detailed and in-depth study.

Keywords: emotional expression, resilience, emotional therapy, emotional intelligence

Received: 8/July/2023                Accepted: 15/Agust/2023

Introduction:

One of the most important issues related to the family is the issue of marriage. Marriage is a bond that requires respect for sexual, social and economic rights. At the beginning of life, couples usually face marital conflicts for a long time due to differences in thoughts, attitudes, expectations and behavior. In order to maintain their marital commitment, couples should solve their problems with healthy interactions. In order to achieve the goals of marriage, having interactions and communication patterns is highly needed (1). It is believed that the existence of issues such as economic problems, inappropriate family relationships, friends, children, sexual infidelity, emotional problems, etc. are the grounds for marital conflicts for couples (2). Today, compared to the past, couples' relationships have problems, and sometimes such problems lead to deep marital differences, emotional divorce, official divorce, and family breakdown (3). It seems that emotional expression (4) and emotional interactions in general (5) are among the important things that provide the basis for proper confrontation with marital issues and their resolution.

Emotional expressiveness is a type of interaction that is implemented in the form of verbal and non-verbal display between couples, and in particular, it can be said that the quality of marital relations is affected by emotional expressiveness to a great extent (6). In other words, emotional expressiveness is one of the main components of emotion, which is defined as the external display of emotion regardless of positive and negative aspects, and is transmitted in the form of facial, verbal, physical, and behavioral forms. (7) And its characteristics are smiling, crying and running away (8). People who do not have the ability to express their emotions, psychological disturbances and physical diseases are potentially lurking in them, and they are constantly faced with reviewing their uncomfortable emotions (9). . People may or may not be expressive of their emotions and are constantly conflicted about their expressive style (10). The results of many researches have supported the relationship between emotional expression and marital conflicts (11). For example, Alenso Fares et al. (5) concluded in their study that if couples are responsive and have the ability to care for their partners and understand each other, their marital satisfaction will increase. . Researches have also been conducted on emotional expression and the quality of married life, and their results show that there is a negative and inverse correlation between the expression of positive emotions and conflicts in married life, and people who can control their emotions they have higher mental health, which is evident in interpersonal relationships (12).

In marital relationships, in addition to the fact that couples need to express their emotions verbally and facially, they also need to have high emotional intelligence. Paying attention to emotional intelligence can also help strengthen marital relationships. Goleman (13) defined emotional intelligence with two dimensions, individual and social. In individual elements, emotional intelligence can be identified with behaviors such as self-awareness, self-control, and motivation, and for the social element, empathic behaviors and social skills can be considered (14). Various researchers have also studied the importance of emotional intelligence in intimate relationships between couples and consider it an important factor in marital satisfaction and emotional expression (15). According to Parker et al. (10), emotional intelligence is very effective in the interpersonal relationships of couples and can help in better management of couples' emotions.

Research results show that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience in family communication patterns (16). For example, in a study by Bradley (17) about the effect of resilience on marital satisfaction, they showed that resilience has a direct effect on marital satisfaction and the results show the importance of resilience on marital satisfaction. Those who have high resilience also have high physical resistance and manage themselves well in stressful situations. Having a high level of resilience can help a person to protect himself in critical life situations (18). According to Zotra, Hall and Murray (19), resilience is the result of successful adaptation to difficult life situations. Researchers did not define resilience as resistance and passivity in the face of problems, but consider a resilient person as a person who is actively and constructively related to the environment around him and seeks a purposeful framework in the face of problems Pay (20).

Considering the importance of these issues in couples' relationships, different approaches have entered the field of psychotherapy to help couples, one of the effective treatments in this regard is emotional-oriented couple therapy (21). During this treatment, each couple actively tries to overcome their fears and express their attachment needs and create a safe attachment for themselves, which in turn leads to satisfaction in the marital relationship. And gives the couple the ability to adapt themselves to problematic situations. The basic assumption in the emotion-oriented couple therapy approach is that marital conflicts are the result of not expressing attachment needs (22). The underlying belief of this approach is that emotional turmoil is the result of negative emotions and damage in attachment, and the main effort in this approach is to reduce avoidant and anxious attachments and increase emotional experiences. That couples can achieve emotional control with the help of emotion regulation strategies, as the main factors predicting marital satisfaction (23).

Emotionally oriented couple therapy has achieved useful results in various marital fields, in one of the researches that was conducted for emotional injuries, the results showed that couples achieved good satisfaction in terms of trust and forgiveness. And their psychiatric symptoms also decreased significantly (24). Delkhosh and Mohadi (25) found emotion-oriented couple therapy to be effective in increasing the resilience and fusion of couples. In Fathi et al.'s research (26), the results supported the effectiveness of emotion-oriented therapy on increasing couples' resilience. Also, the results of Shukri et al.'s (27) research on emotion-oriented couple therapy for forgiveness, emotional self-regulation, and boredom of couples applying for divorce were associated with positive effects. Bashirpour et al. (28) investigated the effectiveness of emotion-oriented couple therapy on marital burnout and resilience of young couples and finally, suggested that this therapeutic method be used to improve marital burnout and couples' resilience. In another study conducted by Vazafili and Reiss (29) on the effectiveness of an emotion-oriented couple communication program on increasing couple communication and marital satisfaction among anxious clients, the treatment as a treatment aimed at increasing the quality of marriage and increasing interactions between Couples were confirmed and Constantine et al. (30) also showed in their research that emotion-oriented couples therapy is effective on couples' resilience.

Because the issue of treating marital problems is one of the issues of current's society, and a healthy family and individual contribute to the health of the society. One of the issues related to couples is lack of positive emotional expression. Having emotional interaction and expressing positive emotions is one of the most essential factors for family stability and unity between couples. Therefore, paying attention to the expression of emotion and excitement in marital relationships in psychotherapy and counseling centers, as well as numerous studies in this regard, can identify the root of family problems and provide the path for useful therapeutic interventions. Nowadays, couples need to use expressiveness, resilience skills, emotional intelligence and emotional management in a timely manner, which seems to be the root of many problems within the family, lack of emotional intelligence and important decisions based on emotions and feelings, lack of patience in the relationship It is to solve problems as well as emotional coldness and not having enough energy to express love and emotions in couples. The result of the lack of skill in the correct and timely expression of feelings and emotions will be marital conflicts leading to emotional divorce or legal divorce. Therefore, identifying effective psychological methods that protect couples against such risks is one of the necessities, and the current research is also designed in these directions.

  In general, the results of the research have supported the effectiveness of emotion-oriented couple therapy in helping with marital issues, creating compatibility and preventing marital conflicts, as well as improving resilience, regulating and managing emotions. It was not seen that there was a research conducted directly in line with the main research, and from a point of view, the growing changes in people's lives, new lifestyles, expectations and expectations that are sometimes irrational. However, it has caused challenges among couples. Therefore, the necessity of therapeutic interventions in this field is felt more than anything else, emotional couple therapy is one of the treatment methods that have been receiving the attention of therapists in recent years to treat marital issues. It has been established that despite all these efforts on the part of therapists, there are still many gaps in this field regarding the problems of couples, which makes it important to address the present issue, therefore, according to what was explained, the present research seeks to answer this question: Is emotion-oriented couple therapy effective on resilience, emotional intelligence, and emotional expressiveness of couples covered by Khorramabad city?

Research Methods:

The current research method was practical in terms of its purpose and semi-experimental in nature with a pre-test-post-test design with an unequal control group, which was conducted cross-sectionally in 1400-1401. The statistical population of this research included all the couples covered by the welfare of  Lorestan province, who were selected from the list of women referring to the welfare organization using the available sampling method. All the subjects filled out the research consent form and all the subjects were assured that their private information will remain completely confidential and due to the epidemic of the Covid-19 disease, meetings were held virtually. The method of holding virtual sessions was that after establishing telephone contact with volunteer couples, they were asked to attend online and in the sky room on the hour, and the sessions were conducted by a trained therapist in the sky space. Rome was held. Hours of rest and, if necessary, training were planned for the couples, and volunteer couples were allowed to speak and express their opinions as well as ask questions if necessary. The meetings started regularly on Fridays from 9 am. The cost of presence in the virtual space was borne by the researchers the criteria for entering the research are: desire and satisfaction to participate in the study, able to share their information and experiences, couples who were covered by welfare for at least 5 years, age range between 18 and 51 years and having children. Exclusion criteria from the research: Diagnosis of psychiatric disorders or personality disorders using the DSM5 diagnostic interview (based on the files of clients in welfare who were previously examined for psychological problems and referred to one of the counseling centers under welfare supervision), non-participation in similar psychological treatment sessions at the same time, absence of more than two sessions.

In order to determine the sample size, Gpower software was used. The effect size factors of significance level, test power and the number of groups were considered as follows: the effect size was considered to be 0.73 based on the meta-analysis of Rasgaber et al. (2019), the significance level and test power were based on 0.05 and 0.6 studies were included and the number of investigated groups was 2 groups. Based on this, the sample size was 45 couples (30 couples in the experimental group and 15 couples in the control group). According to the nature of the society and due to access to the sample members, available sampling method was used to select the sample. In this way, by making the necessary arrangements, the volunteers participating in this study were asked to complete the study questionnaires, after discarding the distorted questionnaires due to the non-cooperation of some participants, finally, 90 questionnaire (For 45 participating couples) were completed. The letter was analyzed and among the people who, based on the scores obtained from the questionnaires in the pre-test (getting a score between 25 and 41 in the Connor and Davidson resilience questionnaire, a score between 20 and 33, It means that the level of emotional intelligence is low and the total score of the person will vary from 19 to 80, with a higher score indicating higher emotional expressiveness), 30 people were randomly replaced in the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group was treated for 10 sessions of 90 minutes (one session per week) in virtual space and through video and audio communication, and the participants in the control group did not receive any training at first, but after completing the post-test questionnaires, Emotion-oriented couple therapy was also taught to them through virtual space.

  The research tools were: (1) Connor and Davidson Resilience Questionnaire: This questionnaire was prepared by Connor and Davidson (2003) by reviewing the research sources of 1979-1979 in the field of resilience (31). The psychometric properties of this scale have been investigated in six groups, the general population, those who refer to psychiatric outpatient care, patients with generalized anxiety disorder, and two groups of post-traumatic stress patients. This test has 5 factors of perception of individual competence, trust in individual instincts, tolerance of negative emotions, positive acceptance of change and secure relationships, control and spiritual influences. Connor and Davidson's resilience questionnaire has 25 statements that are scored on a Likert scale between 1 (completely false) and 5 (always true). The lower limit of the score is (1), the upper limit of the scores is 125 and the average limit is (162.5). Getting a score between 25 and 41 means that the level of people's resilience is at a low level, getting a score between 41 and 83 means that the level of people's resilience is at an average level, and getting a score higher than 83 means that the level of resilience is the recruitment of people is at a high level. The reliability of the present scale in this study was obtained using Cronbach's alpha of 0.88.

Goleman Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (1998): Goleman Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire was created in 1998. It contains 20 questions that cover 4 dimensions (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management). This questionnaire is graded on a 5-point Likert scale and ranges from completely disagree (1) to completely agree (5). In this questionnaire, the minimum score is 20 and the maximum score is 100. A score between 20 and 33 means a low level of emotional intelligence, a score between 68 and 136 indicates an average level of emotional intelligence and a score higher than 136 indicates a high level of emotional intelligence (13). Cronbach's alpha rate in the present study for this questionnaire was 0.90.

King and Ammons Emotional Expression Scale (1990): This scale was designed by King and Ammons in 1990 to examine emotional expression and has 3 subscales and 16 items. Items 1-7 are related to the positive emotion expression subscale, items 8-12 are related to the intimacy scale, and items 13-16 are related to the negative emotion expression subscale. The calculation of Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole scale and the subscales of positive emotion expression, intimacy expression and negative emotion expression were obtained as 0.65, 0.60, 0.69 and 0.68, respectively (32). The scoring of this questionnaire is in the Likert style, which gives a score of 5 to a completely agree answer and a score of 1 to a completely disagree answer. Regarding the answers to questions 6, 8 and 9, the scoring is reversed. The total score of the person will vary from 19 to 80, where a higher score indicates higher emotional expressiveness. Cronbach's alpha rate of this questionnaire in the present study was 0.85.

The package of therapy sessions in this research is taken from Johnson's book "Emotional Couple Therapy" (2010, translated by Bahrami, Azarian and Etamadi, 2016). Training sessions are held in groups. This training protocol is during 10 training sessions, which are 2 sessions per week and the length of each session is 60 minutes. In Table 1, a summary of the training sessions of emotion-oriented couple therapy is reported.

Table 1: Summary of emotion-oriented couple therapy protocol sessions taken from Johnson's couple therapy book

In this research, in addition to descriptive methods, statistical inference methods including multivariate covariance analysis were used to test research hypotheses. It should be noted that all data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 computer software. For this purpose, the assumptions of this method were first examined. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to check the condition of normality of the variables.

Findings

The demographic characteristics of the couples participating in the study are shown in the table below.

Table 2: Demographic information of couples participating in the research (n=60)

The general hypothesis considered in the present study was that emotion-oriented therapy is effective on resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expression of Khorramabad couples. In order to investigate this hypothesis, multivariate covariance analysis was used. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to check the condition of normality. The value of the Shapiro-Wilk test for the variables of resilience, emotional intelligence, and emotional expressiveness in the experimental group was 0.94, 0.92, and 0.95, respectively, and in the control group, 0.95, 0.97, and 0.93, respectively. Is not significant (P>0.01); Therefore, the assumption of normal distribution of variables has been met. Z score was used to check outlier data. Due to the fact that none of the Z values were higher than +3 and lower than -3, outliers were not identified.

The results of the homogeneity test of the regression slopes for the variables show that the F value for the interaction between the post-test and pre-test groups in the variables of resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness is equal to 0.38, 0.32 and 0.45 respectively. Which is not significant (P>0.05), therefore, the assumption of homogeneity of the regression slopes has been observed in this analysis. The results of the Mbox test to check the equality of the variance-covariance matrix between the dependent variables showed that the value of the Mbox statistic is 9.019 and is not statistically significant (P<0.001). The results of the multivariate test of Pillai's effect to investigate the significance of the difference in the averages of the variables of resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness between the experimental and control groups is equal to 0.703 and is statistically significant (P<0.001). That is, there is a significant difference in at least one of the variables of resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness between the experimental and control groups. The results of Levin's test to check the assumption of homogeneity of variances between the experimental and control groups in the variables of resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness showed that the F value for these variables is 1.45 and 0.92, respectively, which is significant. Not (P>0.05); Therefore, the assumption of homogeneity of variance of the compared research variables has been observed.

Table 3: The results of multivariate covariance analysis to investigate the effect of emotion-oriented therapy on couples' resilience, emotional intelligence, and emotional expressiveness.

The results of Table No. 3 show that after removing the effect of the pre-test with the multivariate covariance analysis method, there is a significant effect for the emotion-oriented therapy training factor (independent variable). This result shows that there is a significant difference between at least one of the variables (resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness) of the couples who have undergone the intervention and training of emotional therapy and the couples of the control group (Wilks' lambda, sig=0.000; p>0.05).

Table 4: The results of the multivariate covariance analysis on the difference between the mean scores of the pre-test and the post-test of resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness of couples in the two experimental and control groups

The results of the above table show that by removing the effect of the pre-test variable, the research hypothesis based on the existence of a significant difference in the variables of resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness of couples in the experimental group compared to the control group is confirmed. The significance level obtained for resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness is smaller compared to the significance level of 0.005 obtained from the Benferoni correction (dividing the significance level of 0.005 by three variables). . As a result, according to the obtained averages, it can be said with 0.95% confidence that the level of resilience, emotional intelligence and expressiveness of couples in the experimental group has improved compared to the control group.

Discussion and conclusion:

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of emotional couple therapy on resilience, emotional intelligence and emotional expressiveness in couples covered by Khorramabad welfare. This finding is in agreement with the results of studies by Parker et al. (18), Bradley and Hojjat (20), Zotra et al. (36), Vazafili and Reiss (37) and Constantin et al. (38) are consistent. Emotion-oriented couple therapy leads to an increase in the security of attachment in couples' relationships (33), establishes safe and healthy relationships, and increases resilience in the face of stress and difficulties. Also, it helps couples to create safer relationships and be more effective in regulating their emotions (16). In this treatment method, the person tries to get a proper insight about the motivation of his behavior and feelings. The basis of the emotion-oriented perspective is based on Balbi's attachment theory, which describes three attachment styles in adulthood. According to this theory, people's emotions and behaviors are rooted in childhood and are formed with close people. This therapeutic approach aims to bring clients to the insight that a person's emotions are rooted in the emotions and suppressed emotions of childhood, which appear in a different form with the association of conditions in adulthood. To the extent that such emotions and emotions lead to conflict and dissatisfaction with life (7).

  According to this insight, two people never show the same emotional responses to a stimulus, and emotional responses provide important information about a person's experience in relation to others. With this information, people learn how to behave in the face of emotions, how to express emotional experiences verbally, and what strategies to use in response to emotions and in the context of specific emotions. How to treat others (34). Therefore, emotional orientation has many positive effects in interpersonal relationships, especially marital relationships, one of which is increasing resilience against problems that are inevitable in every marital relationship. Secure attachment improves resilience in various ways, such as increasing physical health, adaptive coping, reducing the risk of depression and post-traumatic stress (18), and strengthens emotion regulation (23).

  In fact, one of the most important issues in marital relationships is how to deal with problems within the family or outside the circle of life. Couples who have a low tolerance threshold cannot be successful in the family relationship system and are constantly arguing and blaming the other party. On the other hand, couples who have a higher level of resilience have higher flexibility, a more logical and problem-oriented approach, and consequently are more successful in managing life crises, and these people achieve maturity and emotional maturity. This factor causes people to be successful in facing and adapting to stressful situations (20). According to Connor and Davidson (31), individual resilience is effective in establishing biological-psychological balance in dangerous situations. Resilient people are aware and aware of the situation, they know their feelings and emotions, and therefore, they also know the cause of these feelings and manage their emotions in a healthy way. Another personal characteristic effective in resilience is the ability to create self-regulation or self-control. Personality traits such as positive self-concept, sociability, intelligence, sufficiency in educational work, autonomy, self-esteem, good communication, problem-solving skills, and mental and physical health are other characteristics of these people.

One of the other effective mechanisms in married life relationships, which is the basis for almost complete poisoning in spouses' relationships, is having a high emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence helps couples analyze situations and know when to use their emotions and excitement for the benefit of themselves and the other party. Having a high emotional intelligence helps a lot in understanding married life. Couples who do not have enough emotional intelligence are influenced by other people's interventions in their lives, or sometimes they violate their emotional commitment and step into betrayal and break their responsibilities. They lead a married life. Bar-An (35) considers emotional intelligence as an important factor in the flourishing of people's abilities to achieve success in life and considers it related to mental health. According to him, emotional intelligence is a group of non-cognitive skills, talents and abilities that increase the ability of a person to succeed in dealing with pressures and harsh environmental conditions, therefore, emotional intelligence is one of the important factors in determining a person's success. is in life Goleman (13) believes that the purpose of strengthening emotional intelligence is to be aware of emotions and manage them in order to overcome life's obstacles, and in this way they can better recognize their own and others' emotions, communicate with them better, and resolve conflicts. Guide in the best possible way.

On the other hand, one of the successful indicators in couples' relationships is expressing and revealing their emotions about various issues. If couples cannot express their emotions well in different situations, there is a high possibility that these emotions will take the form of mental complexes and mental disorders in the future, because according to the opinion of psychologists and therapists, the expression of emotions shows It gives a favorable psychological state of people. Spouses need emotional reactions from each other, and it seems that if these emotions are in line with each other, it can increase the strength of marital relations. Expressing emotions, whether positive or negative, is an effective response to empathic understanding. Couples need this issue in their relationships so that they can follow the flow of their lives well. Most of the family problems are mainly related to the basic challenge that couples do not show enough emotional responses in their relationships. Bradley (17) by studying bereaved people, reached the conclusion that reducing the expression of negative emotions facilitates the supportive reactions of the person's important people, which are assumed to be an important shield in dealing with loss. But frequent and long-term expression of negative emotions, such as anger and sadness, leads to alienating important personal people.

Emotion regulation is an important and determining factor in psychological well-being, which plays an essential role in adapting to stressful life events (12). Emotionally capable people recognize their feelings, understand their underlying concepts and express their emotional states to others in a more effective way when faced with whatever is annoying. Compared to people who do not have the skills and ability to properly express their emotions, these people have more success in coping with negative experiences and show better adaptation in relation to the environment and others (13). Surveys have shown that emotional empowerment of people makes it easier for them to face life's challenges (32). In fact, expressing emotions leads to an increase in awareness of the emotional state of oneself and one's spouse, and couples gain more recognition and sensitivity to each other's feelings. In fact, marriage is the source of some of the deepest human emotions, such as love, hate, anger, fear, sadness, and joy. Appropriate expression of feelings plays an important role in the happiness and continuation of married life. People who have a high expressive ability can resolve differences by using thoughtful and emotional conversations and solve problems by taking the initiative to apologize.

In connection with the present study, it is suggested that in future researches, emotion-oriented couple therapy training should be investigated with other variables such as marital satisfaction, marital boredom, extramarital relationships and betrayal, emotional divorce, marital adjustment, etc. In order to generalize the findings to the studied population, the sample size and the type of population should be expanded and changed. In future research, interview and observation methods should be used for data analysis in addition to using questionnaire tools. The results of this study can be used by psychologists, family counselors, therapists, and psychiatrists in order to take a suitable therapeutic process in the context of counseling sessions with couples to improve the level of resilience, intelligence and emotional expression and teach effective changes in the way of dealing with couples.

Ethical considerations

After stating the purpose of the research, all the participants expressed their interest in participating in the research by completing the consent form, and they were assured of the confidentiality of their data and personal information. The present article is taken from the research approved by the Specialized Research Council of the Islamic Azad University, Borujerd Branch and the Medical Ethics Committee of the Islamic Azad University, Borujerd Branch, and dated 12/1/1401, under the ethics code number IR.IAU.B.REC.1401.015.

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