Married students

Objective:   The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between action flexibility and personality traits with marital adjustment in married students. Methods: The present study was a descriptive correlational study. In this study, 400 married students of Shahrood Azad University in the academic year 2020-2021 were selected by convenience sampling method. Action flexibility questionnaire, personality traits questionnaire and marital adjustment questionnaire were used to collect data. Data was analyzed simultaneously using SPSS software version 21 through statistical method of Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression. Results:  Findings showed that there was a significant relationship between action flexibility and marital adjustment. There was also a significant correlation between the components of extraversion, agreeableness and openness to experience with marital adjustment; but there was no significant correlation between the components of honesty-humility, emotionality and conscientiousness with marital adjustment. Conclusion: Action Flexibility allows the individual to adapt well to the traumatic events of life, and individuals successfully demonstrate positive adaptation to traumatic events, which can be related to and lead to marital adjustment. Personality traits cause people to react differently to life issues and problems. The more people are able to control stress, the less they use emotion-based coping techniques that lead to incompatibility.  

Objective: This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of Gottman couple therapy and cognitive-behavioral couple therapy in improving marital satisfaction among married students at Islamic Azad University, Hamedan Branch. Methods: The study utilized a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group. A total of 45 married students were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned into three groups: Gottman couple therapy (n = 15), cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (n = 15), and a control group (n = 15). The intervention groups received 10 sessions of Gottman couple therapy or 8 sessions of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy, while the control group received no intervention. The ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire (47-item short form) was used to assess marital satisfaction before and after the interventions. Data were analyzed using SPSS-24 software, employing multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the effects of the interventions. Findings: The results indicated that both Gottman couple therapy and cognitive-behavioral couple therapy significantly improved marital satisfaction compared to the control group (p < 0.05). The effect size analysis revealed that Gottman couple therapy had a greater impact (η² = 0.789) compared to cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (η² = 0.721), particularly in areas related to emotional communication, conflict management, and decision-making. However, the ANOVA results showed no statistically significant difference between the two intervention groups (p > 0.05), indicating that both approaches were similarly effective in enhancing marital satisfaction. Conclusion: Both Gottman couple therapy and cognitive-behavioral couple therapy were effective in increasing marital satisfaction among married students, with Gottman couple therapy demonstrating a slightly greater impact. Given the shared principles of these approaches, future research should explore the potential benefits of integrating them to create a more comprehensive intervention for couples.