Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of integrated behavioral couple therapy and emotional couple therapy on health (infertility self-efficacy component) of infertile couples in Ahvaz within the framework of a complementary experimental design with multiple baseline design.
Materials and Methods: The statistical population of the study consisted of all infertile couples referred to Ahvaz infertility centers in 1398 in 498 families, which were selected by purposive non-random sampling method and selected in two groups (3 couples under combined behavioral therapy and 3 couples under Emotional couple therapy) were replaced by simple randomization. Subjects completed the Infertility Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (Cousinio, 2006). Infertile couples in the experimental group underwent the combined behavioral couple therapy intervention of Jacobsen and Christensen (1998) in 12 sessions of 120 minutes in 5 weeks and emotional couple therapy of Greenberger and Johnson (1988) in 10 sessions of 90 minutes in 4 weeks. Then, the effectiveness of the treatments was assessed using observation and repetition of infertility self-efficacy questionnaires. The research data were analyzed using graph analysis, reliable change index (RCI) and significance using the recovery percentage formula.
Findings: The results showed that integrated behavioral couple therapy and emotional couple therapy increased the health (infertility self-efficacy component) of infertile couples.
Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be concluded that both integrated behavioral couple therapy approaches and emotional couple therapy have improved health (infertility self-efficacy component) in infertile couples, although no difference can be found in their effects.