Investigating the effect of communication skills training for married women on couples’ intimacy and quality of life

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of communication skills education for married women on couples’ intimacy and quality of life. The subjects of this study were married female students enrolled in the spring semester of 2011 at the Applied Sciences and Technology University (Tourism Unit) of Kerman in Iran, along with their husbands. Of the students who expressed interest in taking part in this study, 30 subjects were selected and randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group. Subjects in the experimental group participated in a 12-session training for the improvement of communication skills in the context of marriage and family therapy. Comparison of these two groups indicated that communication skills training for married women can increase their intimacy and quality of life in their relationships with their husbands (p < .01). This study further revealed that this sort of training programs could also increase the quality of life of the husbands in their relationships with their wives (p < .01).