Counseling and psychotherapy culture

The Effectiveness of the Marriage Enrichment Program for Couples’ Transition to Parenthood on Tolerance and Relationship Maintenance Strategies

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Amirhossein Sobhaninia 1
Zabihollah Abbaspour 2
Sarah Kiyan Ersi 3

1 M.A in Family Counseling, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Counseling, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

3 M.A. in Family Counseling, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz

https://doi.org/10.22054/qccpc.2026.85319.3441
Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Marriage Enrichment Program for Couples’ Transition to Parenthood on tolerance and relationship maintenance in couples undergoing the transition to parenthood in Yasuj. The research employed a quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up phases, including a control group. The study population comprised 88 individuals (44 couples) in the transition to parenthood who attended the Shahid Ashrafi and Shahid Madani health centers in Yasuj. From this group, 60 participants (30 couples) who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were randomly assigned to experimental (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. Participants completed the Relational Maintenance Strategy Measure (Stafford & Canary, 1992) and the Tolerance Scale in Spouses’ Relations (khojastehmehr et all, 2020) across three phases: pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. The experimental group attended eight 90-minute sessions of the couple relationship enrichment program, Data were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results indicated that the Parenting Transition-Based Couple Enrichment Program significantly improved relationship maintenance strategies (F= 36/08, P < 0/001) and tolerance (F = 28/27, P < 0/001) in the experimental group compared to the control group, from pre-test to post-test and follow-up. These findings suggest that the Marriage Enrichment Program for Couples’ Transition to Parenthood is an effective method for enhancing relationship quality and tolerance among couples transitioning to parenthood.

Keywords

Marital Relationship Enrichment
Transitioning to Parenthood
Relationship Maintenance Strategies
Tolerance
Subjects
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