Romantik İlişki Becerileri Psikoeğitim Programının Etkinliğinin Sınanması: Bir Pilot Çalışma
Ahmet Togay, İrem Şahin, Meral AtıcıExamining the Effectiveness of a Romantic Relationship Skills Psychoeducation Program: A Pilot Study
Ahmet Togay, İrem Şahin, Meral AtıcıIn terms of development, young adulthood is a period in which romantic relations are at the forefront. Research has shown that university students experience problems with developing healthy romantic relationships and that these are serious problems for their lives (Erkan, Özbay, Cihangir-Çankaya, & Terzi, 2012; Gizir, 2005; Kılıç, 1995; Topkaya & Meydan, 2013; Yazıcı, 2003). The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of a psychoeducation program of romantic relationship skills developed for young adults.
Method
Participants
The study group consisted of 24 young adults (12 young adults in the experimental group, 12 young adults in the control group) who were studying at a university located in the Mediterranean region. The study included students who had been in a romantic relationship for at least six months. Participants who had a general symptom average score of 1 or more points were excluded from the study according to the scores obtained from the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1992; Şahin & Durak, 1994). In addition, participants who had been subjected to physical violence by their partners, who had used physical violence against their partners, who lived together with their partners or had spent less than six months in a relationship were excluded from the study.
Measures
The Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1992; Şahin & Durak, 1994) was applied to individuals to check if they suffered any psychopathology. The Relationship Satisfaction Scale subdimension of Relationship Stability Scale (Büyükşahin, Hasta, & Hovardaoğlu, 2005; Rusbult, Martz, & Agnew, 1998) was used to determine the relationship satisfaction levels of the participants in the experimental and control groups.
The intervention program
The Romantic Relationship Skills Psychoeducation Program consists of 8 sessions lasting 90 minutes each. The program consists of goal setting, self-recognition in romantic relationships, romantic relationship styles and stages, expectations and romantic beliefs, gender differences in romantic relationships, attachment and communication dimensions.
Procedure
A pre-test post-test control group semi-experimental design was used in the study. The psychoeducation program was applied to the experimental group and no intervention was applied to the control group. At the beginning of the experimental process, the independent samples t-test was used to assess whether there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of relationship satisfaction. The two-factor mixed design ANOVA test was used to test the study’s hypotheses.
Results
According to the findings of the study, there was no significant difference between the total scores of the relationship satisfaction levels obtained from the between-group test for the experimental and control groups, F(1, 19) = 0.72, p > .05. However, it was found that there was a significant difference between the scores of intra-group pre-test post-test relationship satisfaction levels, F(1, 19) = 4.37, p < .05. It was also found that participants in the experimental and control groups showed a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test measurements of the levels of relationship satisfaction after the psychoeducation program. Thus, the interaction effect of being in different treatment groups and repeated measurement factors on the relationship satisfaction was significant, F(1, 19) = 35.06, p < .001. It was also determined that the common interaction of group (experiment-control) and repeated measurement (pre-test post-test) had a high influence (η2 = .65) on the relationship satisfaction scores. Accordingly, the change observed in the repeated (pre-test post-test) measures of participants’ level of relationship satisfaction was significantly different between the experimental and control groups. A focus group interview was conducted to investigate the post-intervention effects of the psychoeducation program on the participants in the experimental group and the findings of this interview data showed that these positive developments continued after the psychoeducation program.
Discussion
According to our findings, the psychoeducation program had significant effects on relationship satisfaction levels of the individuals. The results obtained from this study concur with the findings of many previous examples of research, in which participants’ relationship satisfaction and quality increased through various intervention programs (Antle, Sullivan, Dryden, Karam, & Barbee, 2011; Carson, Carson, Gil, & Baucom, 2004; Futris, Sutton, & Richardson, 2013; Griffin & Apostal, 1993; Larson, Vatter, Galbraith, Holman, & Stahmann, 2007; Ledermann, Bodenmann, & Cina, 2007; Long, Angera, Carter, Nakamoto, & Kelso, 1999; Parish, 1992; Worthington et al., 1997). There are some limitations to this study. Concerning the matter of gender, the number of male members in both groups was quite low and this is a concern in terms of adequacy of evaluation. The participants in the study were all students studying in an undergraduate program in the department of counseling and guidance at university. In future studies, working with participants from different undergraduate programs might provide richer evidence for the effectiveness of the program. It is also believed that conducting similar research with controls on the possible confounding variables which can affect relationship satisfaction might increase the significance of the results obtained.