Integrative-positive marital program for the enhancement of relationship among married couples

Pages: 261-266
Wilson G. Chakkyath (The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines)
Edgardo De Jesus (The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines)

Marriage, for many couples, begins as a source of happiness and satisfaction, but gradually it becomes a source of frustration and distress. As a result, they do not experience optimal level of marital relationship. Positive psychology, a flourishing area of psychology, promotes positive constructs and interventions to augment the level of well-being of people. In this background, the aim of this research was to develop an Integrative-Positive Marital Program (IPMP) for couples and to understand its effectiveness in improving their marital relationship. The study made use of the true experimental research method: two independent group design, using pre-tests and post-tests.
The study used Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and eight factors of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory, Revised (MSIR) to measure the quality of marital relationship. Thirty selected couples were randomly assigned to
experimental and control groups. The experimental group was given eight weeks long intervention program, IPMP which was mainly anchored on two positive constructs, gratitude and forgiveness. The data was analyzed using
mean scores, t-test for independent samples, paired samples statistics, and Cohen’s d. The pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group showed significant differences and it indicated substantial growth in the quality of marital relationship. Hence, the Integrative-Positive Marital Program (IPMP) was considerably effective in the enhancement of the marital relationship.