Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

The post-COVID era has presented new challenges for the mental health of couples. The global crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on family relationships and individuals’ mental well-being. This study was conducted with the aim of examining the effectiveness of family-centered problem-solving programs on the mental well-being of couples in the post-COVID era in the year 1402 (2023-2024).

Methodology:This research was applied in terms of its objective and utilized a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test design with a control group and a two-month follow-up. The statistical population of this study consisted of married employees from three technical and vocational colleges: Girls’ College 1, Boys’ College 1, and Boys’ College 2 in Kermanshah County, totaling 200 individuals. After reviewing the entry criteria, 100 participants were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to the experimental group (50 individuals) and the control group (50 individuals). The intervention program for the experimental group was conducted over 10 sessions, each lasting two hours. The research instrument included the Diener et al. (1985) Subjective Well-Being Scale. Data analysis was performed using mixed analysis of variance with SPSS-26 software.

Findings:The results indicated that the difference in mean subjective well-being between the pre-test phase and the post-test and two-month follow-up phases was statistically significant, with this significance favoring the post-test and follow-up assessments (P < 0.001). This indicates that in the post-test and follow-up phases, the level of psychological well-being of the participants significantly increased. This significance reflects the effectiveness of the family-centered problem-solving intervention in enhancing subjective well-being.

Conclusion:Based on the results, it can be concluded that problem-solving-based interventions can serve as an effective approach to improving the mental well-being of couples in the post-COVID era, emphasizing the necessity of addressing mental health in social and family planning. The findings of this study can be of interest to psychologists, counselors, and couples.