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Investigating the effectiveness of combining contextual and structural family therapies in self-criticism and defense styles of couples with marital dissatisfaction

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Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of combining contextual and structural family therapies on self-criticism and defense styles of couples with marital dissatisfaction. This experimental research study utilized a pretest-posttest and two-month follow-up control group design. The research population consisted of all couples with marital dissatisfaction who referred to family counseling centers in Birjand (Iran) during the first 6 months of 2017. Furthermore, 20 couples with marital dissatisfaction were selected as the participants of the study using convenience and purposive sampling and were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control groups, each containing 10 couples. The experimental group received the treatment for ten 90-min weekly sessions and the control group received no intervention during this time. The research instruments included the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) (Andrews et al. Journal of Nervous and mental Disease, 1993) and Levels of Self-Criticism Scale (Thompson & Zuroff, 2004), which were administered to the participants in the pretest, posttest and follow-up. To analyze the data, repeated-measures ANOVA was used. The research findings demonstrated that the combination of contextual and structural family therapies was effective regarding mature and immature defense styles and self-criticism of couples with marital dissatisfaction. It should be noted that the persistence of the treatment effect was maintained after two months (p < 0.05). Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the combination of contextual and structural family therapies increased mature defense styles, whereas it decreased immature defense styles and self-criticism of couples with marital dissatisfaction in the experimental group compared to the control group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Science, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran

    Zahra Farazi & Mohammadreza Safarian

  2. Department of Literature and Humanities, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran

    Ebrahim Namani

  3. Department of Psychology, Quchan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Quchan, Iran

    Hamid Nejat

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  1. Zahra Farazi
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  2. Ebrahim Namani
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  3. Hamid Nejat
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  4. Mohammadreza Safarian
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Correspondence to Zahra Farazi.

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Farazi, Z., Namani, E., Nejat, H. et al. Investigating the effectiveness of combining contextual and structural family therapies in self-criticism and defense styles of couples with marital dissatisfaction. Curr Psychol 42, 4447–4457 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01748-x

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