Examining the effects of the SYMBIS pre- marriage training on engaged couples' communication beliefs

Engagement period and the first years of marriage are important stages in the family life cycle. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of pre- marriage training in the SYMBIS method on communication beliefs of the engaged couples. Participant were 20 couples referring to Shahid  Beheshti University counseling center, selected from all who referred from September to December 2017. They were randomly assigned to experimental (10 pairs) and control (10 pairs) groups. The experimental group received 8 sessions of 90 minutes weekly intervention. Both groups completed the Communication Beliefs Inventory in three stages of pre-test, post-test and follow-up. Findings showed a significant difference between the performance of both experimental and control groups  in the total score of communication beliefs (F = 63/23, p = 0/001), disagreement in destructive factors (F = 34/40, p = 0/001), partner,s in ability to change (F = 27/73, p = 0/001), expectation and mind reading (F = 46/31, p = 0/001), sexual perfectionism (F = 23/10, p = 0/001) and sexual dissonance (F = 29/58, p  = 0/001) in post-test and follow up stages. Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that premarital enrichment through SYMBIS  method is effective in reducing the ineffective communication beliefs among engaged couples.