Comparison of the Effects of Communication and Conflict Resolution Skills Training on Mental Health

This study examined the effects of communication and conflict resolution skills training on mental health amongIranian couples based on the PREPARE/ENRICH program. In this study, mental health was measured byGeneral Health Questionnaires (GHQ28). The study adopted a pre- and post-control group design inemphasizing the effects of communication training and conflict resolution skills on mental health. Theparticipants in this research consisted of couples who were referred to the researcher by counseling center. Thereferrals were done for about two months in 2009. Their problems included marital problems and maritalconflicts, commonly categorized as marital dissatisfaction, which were identified after a formal interview, testingand screening. In order to assign the experimental and control groups, purposive random sampling was employed.One hundred and eight participants comprised of 54 married couples were divided equally between control andexperimental groups and the training sessions lasted for eight weeks. In this training program, researchersfocused on the dependent variable of mental health, while communication and conflict resolution skills trainingwere the independent variables. Specifically, the t-test statistical analysis was employed to test for the potentialsignificant differences in couples’ scores of mental health between (i) the pre- and post-training scores forcouples of the experimental group; and (ii) between the post-training scores for the couples of the two groups.The results indicated that teaching communication and conflict resolution skills had significant positive effectson the mental health scores obtained from the studied couples.