Increasing awareness of martial life of German religious couples through a Christian psycho spiritual marital enhancement program

• Main Author: Pazanin, Daniel
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2005
• Subjects: Marriage—Religious aspects—Christianity; Marriage > Psychological aspects; Marriage; Married people > Religious life; Counseling
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/156; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_doctoral/article/1155/viewcontent/CDTG004244_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The study is a partial answer to the reality of marital distress and breakdown in Germany, which is endangering the emotional and physical health of its subjects, as well as their offspring, bringing about unhappiness with all its implied negative consequences to life. The study investigated the increase of marital awareness for religious couples in the German setting through the Psychologisch-Spirituelles Ehe Program (PSEP, Psycho-Spiritual Marriage Program). The PSEP is a 12-session compact marriage enrichment program. The format and the structure of the PSEP was designed to fit the culturalsensitive facets. The PSEP was rendered on a one weekend (1 days) basis, in a conference type setting. The eight variables incorporated in order to increase marital awareness were (1) spiritual beliefs (2) role relationships (3) communication, (4) conflict resolution (5) leisure time (6) sexuality (7) parenting (8) marital satisfaction (global). The study employed an exploratory experimental pretest-posttest control group research design. The participants in the experimental (N=16) and control groups (N=26) were religious couples living in the state of Baden-Württemberg (Germany). The ENRICH instrument was utilized in order to measure the effects of the program. The repeated measure design (t-test) and the data-mining CHAID (Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector) analysis was the statistical treatment used. Increase of the mean score from the pre-test to the post-test on the variables measured were indicative of an increase in marital awareness (marital improvement). Findings indicated, that 4-5 weeks after the intervention was rendered, changes in the ii experimental group took place: a noticeable improvement of the mean of the husbands and a lesser improvement of the wives of the experimental group took place. Analysis of differentiation showed that participants who at the start of the PSEP Program had perceived their marriage as satisfied, have reached a higher increase in the mean score than their counterparts who perceived their marriage to be dissatisfied. Specially husbands who perceived beforehand to be satisfied increased significantly in their marital awareness on the variables combined. The Socio-demographic factor did not consider divorce was identified as being characteristic of husbands who increased. The marriage intervention did not show any increase in marital awareness for dissatisfied wives and husbands who considered divorce in the experimental group. The control group had no significant changes. It can be concluded that the PSEP-Conference had mainly a preventive and enriching impact, especially on couples and individuals who perceived beforehand to be satisfied in their marriages. Important recommendations for further research were given.