Effectiveness of Couple Interventions in Marital Distress: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Binu  Joseph; Varghese K.  Joseph; Santhosh Kareepadath  Rajan

doi:10.18502/ijph.v54i1.17581

Binu Joseph School of Psychological Sciences, CHRIST University, Bangalore, India
Varghese K. Joseph School of Psychological Sciences, CHRIST University, Bangalore, India
Santhosh Kareepadath Rajan School of Psychological Sciences, CHRIST University, Bangalore, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v54i1.17581

Keywords: Marital conflict resolution; Couple therapy; Hope therapy; Marital therapy; Conflict intervention effect

Abstract

Background: Couple interventions focus on resolving relationship issues and improving partners' intimacy. Several intervention models are used on different occasions to deal with the issues. The present systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the effectiveness of such couple interventions dealing with marital distress.

Methods: Using the PRISMA guidelines for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses, a search was carried out to identify published articles in the areas of study. The meta-analysis investigated the effectiveness of couple interventions by comparing the post-intervention assessments of the experimental and control groups.

Results: The systematic review helped to identify twelve empirical studies published within the last ten years in the following databases: ScienceDirect, EBSCO, APA PsycINFO, NCBI, ProQuest, and Google Scholar. Meta-analysis showed a statistically significant overall effect size (Cohen's d = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.56 - 1.14). Cochran's Q showed that there was a substantial difference between the studies. There were signs of publication bias.

Conclusion: The current study revealed an overall large effect size, indicating that different couple interventions had a noticeable impact on distressed couples who received interventions as opposed to couples who did not receive any interventions.