The Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Couple Therapy in Improving Marital Communication Quality and Trust among Couples Experiencing Emotional Divorce.

Determining the Effectiveness of Cognitive‑Behavioral Couple Therapy on Marital Communication Quality and Trust in Relationships among Couples with Emotional Divorce

This study is a randomized clinical trial with parallel groups and double blinding conducted on 30 couples with emotional divorce. Randomization will be performed using Random Number Generator software.

This study is conducted at counseling centers in Ahvaz city on couples with emotional divorce. After obtaining informed consent, participants are randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups; the intervention group receives cognitive-behavioral couple therapy and the control group receives usual care. Data are collected at pretest and posttest, and the study is conducted in a double-blind manner. The clinicians, outcome assessors, and data analyst will be unaware of the participants’ group allocation.

Inclusion criteria: experiencing emotional divorce, being at least 20 and at most 50 years old, having lived at least 5 years in their marital life, and holding at least a high school diploma. Exclusion criteria: having psychological disorders and using psychiatric medications, and having physical problems that could interfere with the intervention process.

Intervention group: Cognitive-Behavioral Couple Therapy; it is an integrative approach to reduce marital distress and psychological problems in relationships, which is implemented based on the model of Epstein and Baucom (2002; cited in Salehi et al., 2021) in 10 sessions of 90 minutes, twice a week for 5 weeks. Control group: They do not receive any intervention.

Marital Communication Quality; Trust in Couples’ Relationships

In this study, a simple randomization method was used to assign participants to the experimental and control groups. The unit of randomization in this study was the couples visiting the counseling center. First, a complete list of eligible couples based on the study entry criteria was prepared. Then, a unique numeric identification code was assigned to each couple. These codes were entered into the Random Number Generator software, which generated a random number for each couple. After these numbers were generated, the couples were sorted in ascending order according to their random numbers. Then, the participants were sequentially assigned to two groups; the first 15 couples on the list were assigned to the experimental group, and the next 15 couples to the control group. By this method, the order of entry into the study and the researcher’s knowledge of the participants had no role in group selection. For allocation concealment, the person responsible for entering data into the software was independent of the clinical operations team and could not be aware of or alter the allocation process. Additionally, the identification codes were kept confidential and separate from other participant information. Therefore, it was not possible to predict the group assignment for any couple before the completion of the randomization process.

To ensure blinding, the group allocation process will be performed randomly by an individual outside the research team, who will have no involvement in the treatment process or outcome assessment. Outcome assessors and the data analyst will be faced with anonymous numerical codes for the groups and will have no information regarding the nature of the intervention (experimental or control group). Furthermore, all therapy sessions will be designed and conducted in a manner that ensures the therapist remains unaware of the participants’ pre-test and post-test assessment results, in order to prevent bias during the implementation of the protocol. To maintain blinding, all assessment reports will be coded, recorded, and provided for final analysis by an independent research assistant

Participant data is completely confidential and I do not intend to publish it.