فاطمه تیمورزاده

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of Building a Lasting Connection Premarital Program on Marital Engagement, Emotional Security, and Literacy of couples during marriage. Methods:  The method of this research is a pre-test-post-test semi-experimental with a control group, and the statistical population includes all married couples in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad who have been married for at least 6 months. From the research population, 24 couples were selected based on the available sampling method and then randomly assigned to groups. Participants in the experimental group received 5 2-hour training sessions on the sustainable link-building program, whereas participants in the control group received no training. The tools used included the Marital Participation Questionnaire, the Revised Emotional Security Questionnaire (ISQ-R), and the Iranian Family Psychological Functioning Scale (IFPFS). SPSS 26 statistical software, descriptive statistics, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used for data analysis. Results: According to the present study, the Building a Lasting Connection training program improved marital engagement, emotional security, and couples' literacy during marriage among participants in the experimental group compared with the control group. The effect sizes for the variables of marital engagement, emotional security, and couples' literacy were 0.759 (p<0.001), 0.835 (p<0.001), and 0.745 (p<0.001), respectively. Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, the premarital educational program, grounded in the model of building a lasting connection during the marriage period, can help improve couples' relationships on the eve of marriage.