Citation

Alqashan H. Dig. Mid. East Stud. 2008; 17(2): 1-16.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1949-3606.2008.tb00234.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The main purpose of the current study was to determine whether a marriage enrichment program could effectively increase and improve marital satisfaction and marital communication of Kuwaiti couples. In addition, most of the previous studies which focused on marriage enrichment programs have been conducted with predominantly white, North American married couples (Yelsma, 1988). The study of the impact of the marriage enrichment will provide insight into the ways couples from other cultural backgrounds interact with each other in achieving marital satisfaction, especially, couples from Muslim countries. Participants were 62 married couples (16 couples in the experimental group; 16 couples in the control group) — their marital duration ranging from one year to thirty-one years. The study examined whether a marital enhancement program could make any change in the marital satisfaction of Kuwaiti couples. The study focused on the following research questions: 1) Do socio-demo-graphic factors (age, income, education, duration of marriage, children) play a role on the marital satisfaction level of Kuwaiti couples? 2) Is there a difference in the marital satisfaction scale between male and female in the pre-test, post-test marital satisfaction scale? 3) Does the marriage enhancement training program in the Social Development Office (SDO) influence the post-test level of the marital satisfaction of the participants? The study concluded that the marriage enrichment program in the SDO of Kuwait has had a significant positive effect on marital communication and marital adjustment immediately following the enrichment experience.