Journal of Woman and Family Studies
Effectiveness of "Hold Me Tight" Educational Program on Intimacy, Attachment Behaviors, and Marital Satisfaction among Married Students
Document Type : Research/Original/Regular
Authors
1 Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran
2 PhD student in Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the "Hold Me Tight" educational program on intimacy, attachment behaviors, and marital satisfaction in married students of Allameh Tabataba’i University. The research is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest-follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population includes all married students of Allameh Tabataba’i University, of which 40 (20 couples) were selected by available sampling and randomly assigned to two groups (10 couples in each the experimental and control group). The tools which are used included the Marital Intimacy Needs Questionnaire (MINQ), the Brief Accessibility, Responsiveness and Engagement scale (BARE), and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). The experimental group was intervened in 8 sessions of 2 hours using the " Hold Me Tight " program and no intervention was performed for the control group. At the end of the intervention and 6 months later, the tests of intimacy, attachment behaviors, and marital adjustment were performed again and the results were analyzed using analysis of covariance. The results showed that "Hold me tight" has a significant effect on intimacy, attachment behaviors, and marital satisfaction in participants (p <0.05). The follow-up test shows that the effect of the HMT program remains within 6 months in attachment behaviors of partner, marital satisfaction, and intimacy. In conclusion, the HMT program can be used to improve couples' relationships in general and to increase intimacy, attachment behaviors (responsiveness, accessibility, and engagement), and marital satisfaction (dyadic adjustment) for married students and the general population.
Highlights
Results showed that the Hold Me Tight program caused an increase in attachment behaviors, including responsiveness, accessibility, engagement, and marital satisfaction in couples who participated in this program. Results remained significant six months after the study. In general, emotionally focused therapy helps couples gain the ability to control their emotions and de-escalation. These skills enhance emotion and behavior management, which ultimately makes them show more flexibility in adapting to life situations and achieve the desired level of emotional stability, calmness, and realism in life (Johnson, 2004). Shifting to a focus on emotion-based dialogue, rather than resolving conflict in other ways, will improve couples' intimacy, attachment feelings, and behaviors, and satisfaction.
Keywords
Main Subjects
Background and purpose
Satisfaction and stability in a romantic relationship significantly affect an adult's mental health (Talayizadeh and Bakhtiyarpour, 2016). According to Hou et al. (2019), marital satisfaction is an objective sense of gratification, consent, adjustment between spouses, and enjoyment a couple of from all relationships. Research indicates a relationship between attachment styles and marital satisfaction (Mirhashemi and Akbari Moghadam, 2020, Bedair et al., 2020). Emotionally focused therapy (Johnson, 2004) has relied on attachment theory to research adult love. Hold Me Tight® (HMT) educational program is based on adult attachment and EFT (Johnson, 2004). Research on HMT indicates its effectiveness in reducing dyadic distress and increasing marital satisfaction and includes process research that shows how positive changes occur in a relationship (Lesch, Bruin & Anderson, 2018, Jalali et al., 2016).
Previous studies in Iran have not focused on attachment behavior and intimacy, which are influencing factors in relationship quality and marital satisfaction. Therefore, the current study aims to determine the effectiveness of the Hold Me Tight program (HMT) on intimacy, attachment behaviors, and marital satisfaction among married Iranian students.
Method
The present study is semi-experimental research using a pretest-posttest-follow-up with a control group design. The population consisted of all married students of Allameh Tabatabaei University. Twenty couples (N=40) were selected through convenience sampling and then randomly assigned into two groups, control (N=20) and experimental (N=20). The experimental group received intervention in eight 2-hours sessions while the control group received no intervention. Subjects were assessed before and six months after the intervention.
Dyadic Adjustment Scale
This instrument was developed by Spanier (1976) marital quality to measure marital and other dyadic qualities. In the current study, Cronbach's alpha for its four subscales was calculated between .72 to .85.
The Brief Accessibility, Responsiveness, and Engagement (BARE) Scale
This questionnaire was developed by Sandberg et al. (2012) to measure couples' attachment behaviors. In the current study, Cronbach's alpha for its six subscales was calculated between .57 to .94.
Marital intimacy Need Questionnaire (MINQ)
This questionnaire was developed by Bagarozzi (1997) to measure assess intimacy between couples. In the current study, Cronbach's alpha for this measure was calculated between .57 to .94.
The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5)
The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 was developed by First et al. (2014) and designed for diagnostic purposes.
Results
Analysis of covariance was used for data analysis. Results of intimacy, attachment behaviors, and marital satisfaction variables are shown in Table 1.
Table 1.
Results of One-way ANCOVA on intimacy, attachment behaviors, and marital satisfaction variables
|
Variables |
Source |
Sum of Squares |
df |
F |
p |
η2
|
SP |
|
Intimacy |
group |
125.4 |
1 |
4.144 |
.049 |
.0106 |
.51 |
|
Individual's attachment behaviors |
group |
76.7 |
1 |
39.1 |
.000 |
.527 |
1 |
|
Spouse's attachment behaviors |
group |
41.2 |
1 |
12.8 |
.001 |
.268 |
.935 |
|
Martial satisfaction |
group |
332.2 |
1 |
11.1 |
.002 |
.242 |
.901 |
According to the results of Table 1., the Hold Me Tight program has a significant effect on increasing intimacy, attachment behavior, and marital satisfaction.
Conclusion
Results showed that the Hold Me Tight program caused an increase in attachment behaviors, including responsiveness, accessibility, engagement, and marital satisfaction in couples who participated in this program. Results remained significant six months after the study. In general, emotionally focused therapy helps couples gain the ability to control their emotions and de-escalation. These skills enhance emotion and behavior management, which ultimately makes them show more flexibility in adapting to life situations and achieve the desired level of emotional stability, calmness, and realism in life (Johnson, 2004). Shifting to a focus on emotion-based dialogue, rather than resolving conflict in other ways, will improve couples' intimacy, attachment feelings, and behaviors, and satisfaction.
Ethical consideration
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study was sponsored by Allameh Tabataba’i University and has been done in accordance with the principles of human research ethics.
Authors' contribution: The first author implemented the project, and the corresponding author was the research assistance.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicting interests.
Acknowledgments: We would like to thank all the participants who helped us in this research by their participation in the study. We also thank Allameh Tabataba’i University counseling center personnel for their facilitation.
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