Investigating the Effectiveness of Training Program of Ways of Conflict Resolution based on Olson's Integrative Approach on Components of Covert Relational Aggression in Couples with Emotional Divorce

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Couples with a tendency to emotional divorce have problems and challenges in the field of covert relational aggression in their marital relationships. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of training program of ways of conflict resolution based on Olson's integrative approach on components of covert relational aggression in couples with emotional divorce.

Methodology: This research was a quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test, and two month follow-up design with a control group. The research population consisted of couples referring to psychological service centers and clinics of third district of Tehran city in the summer of 2022 year, which 30 couples were selected through purposive sampling method and randomly assigned into two equal groups. The experimental group received 11 sessions of 90 minutes trained with a researcher-made program of Ways of conflict resolution based on Olson's integrative approach, and the control group remained on the waiting list for intervention. The instruments of this study included the Emotional Divorce Scale (Gottman, 1994) and Covert Relational Aggression Scale (Nelson & Carroll, 2006). To analyze the data of the present study were used from the methods of chi-square, mixed analysis of variance and Bonferroni post hoc test in SPSS-19 software.

Findings: The results of this study indicated that the training program of ways of conflict resolution based on Olson's integrative approach reduced the components of covert relational aggression, including love withdrawal and social sabotage, in couples with emotional divorce and the results remained in the follow-up phase (P<0.001).

Conclusion: According to the results of the present research, namely the effectiveness of training program of ways of conflict resolution based on Olson's integrative approach on reducing components of covert relational aggression in couples with emotional divorce, specialists and therapists can use the aforementioned intervention method to improve the psychological characteristics of couples.