Effectiveness of Assessment and Education Phase of Schema Therapy on Marital Satisfaction

Background: Marital satisfaction is a common concept to show the degree of happiness and solidarity in marital relationship. Objectives: This paper aims to study the effectiveness of assessment and education phase of schema therapy on marital satisfaction of high school married students in Ghaen city, eastern Iran. Methods: The study has a quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, control group, and a followup phase. The sample consisted of 30 married students who were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into experimental and control groups (n=15 per group). Both groups were assessed using Young Schema Questionnaire - Short Form and ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Inventory in the pre-test, post-test and follow-up phases. The early maladaptive schemas were taught to the experimental group in 8 two-hour sessions held once a week. Results: The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS software (V-22) using multivariate analysis of variance. While similar before intervention, the experimental and control groups were significantly different after intervention. In other words, education led to increased, long-lasting levels of marital satisfaction. Conclusions: Therefore, it can be concluded that marital satisfaction can enhance by implementing assessment and education phase of schema therapy.