Comparison of the effectiveness of McMaster and William C. Nichols family counseling approaches on couples' problem solving ability

In the field of family counseling and psychology, various approaches have been developed to reduce conflicts and communication disorders between couples. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of McMaster and Nichols family counseling approaches on problem-solving ability. . The present study was applied in terms of purpose and quasi-experimental in terms of the method with a pre-test-post-test design with the control group. The study population consisted of all couples referring to counseling centers in Boroujerd city in 2021-2022, whose number was reported to be about 700 people. Among them, 36 couples with marital incompatibility were selected as a sample and were randomly placed in two intervention groups and one control group (12 people in each group). The instrument of the present study was Ahmadi et al.'s (2010) Family Problem Solving Questionnaire (FPS). McMaster's family therapy intervention (Ryan et al., 2012) was performed in 10 sessions of 1.5 hours, and Nichols family therapy (Nichols, 2001) in 12 sessions of 1.5 hours each week. But the control group did not receive any intervention. Research data were analyzed by mixed analysis of variance (with repeated measures). Findings showed that McMaster's family therapy and Nichols's family therapy are effective on couples' problem-solving ability (p <0.05). The results also showed that there was no difference between the effectiveness of McMaster family therapy and Nichols family therapy interventions in adaptation (p <0.05). Considering the effectiveness of both interventions in increasing problem-solving ability, family therapy counselors can be suggested to use these two interventions to resolve conflicts between couples and increase problem-solving ability.