Development of a systemic premarital counselling programme and evaluating its impact on young adults' couple relationships: A pilot study

The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and evaluate a premarital counselling programme based on a systemic approach (SPMC). The Couple Relationship Scale (CRS) was used as a data collection tools. We randomly selected 24 participants from Turkish university students who scored low on the CRS subscales and agreed to participate in the study. We provided the experimental group with eight sessions of SPMC. The control group did not receive any intervention at all. We used quantitative data to determine the change in participants’ couple relationships and qualitative data to determine their views about SPMC and their personal awareness. Analysis shows that SPMC had an effect on the experimental group in terms of the communication, romance-sexuality, conflict resolution, and acceptance of differences subscales scores. Follow-up indicated that the effect of the SPMC was still measurable 12 and 24 weeks after the completion of SPMC. The obtained results are discussed on a theoretical basis.