Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Sexual Self-Efficacy and Marital Satisfaction among Couples with Marital Conflicts

Background: Marital conflict is a type of lack of ongoing meaningful agreement between spouses. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on sexual self-efficacy and marital satisfaction in couples with marital conflicts.

Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was carried out on the intervention and control groups with a pretest/posttest design and follow-up. The study population consisted of 30 females who referred to counseling centers in district 1 of Tehran, Iran, in 2018 through simple random sampling. The participants were randomly divided into two groups, each with 15 members. The intervention group received mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and the control group received no intervention. Data collection tools were the questionnaires of sexual self-efficacy, marital satisfaction, and marital conflicts. The questionnaires were filled out by the participants before and after the intervention and 3 months later. The collected data were analyzed using repeated measurement analysis and analysis of covariance by SPSS software (version 22).

Results: The results of the study showed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy led to increased sexual self-efficacy (P<0.033) and marital satisfaction (P<0.003) in the intervention group; however, in the control group, there was no significant difference in pretest, posttest and follow-up scores.

Conclusion: Based on the results, it can be concluded that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can improve sexual self-efficacy and marital satisfaction in couples with marital conflicts.