Development and evaluation effectiveness of the psychoeducation program for supporting romantic relationships in emerging adulthood

One of the most important factors affecting the psychological well-being of individuals in emerging adulthood is healthy romantic relationships. Emerging adulthood is the period when individuals are most vulnerable to long-term and healthy romantic relationships. Research shows that individuals in Turkey have problems in developing healthy romantic relationships and need support. Relationship education programs offer opportunities to develop healthy relationships. This study aims to develop a short and long-term relationship education program for individuals in emerging adulthood and test its effectiveness. In this direction, 1-session workshop and 8-session psychoeducation program were generated. A 3x3 mixed experimental design was employed in the study. Before the psychoeducation and workshop programs started, a pretest was administered to the experimental and control groups. While the psychoeducation and workshop programs conducted by the researcher were applied in the experimental groups, no intervention was made to the control group. After the sessions were completed, posttest and follow-up measurements were administered. The data were analyzed with Generalized linear mixed model and ANOVA tests. Individuals participating in the workshop program demonstrated a significant improvement in the variables of relaitonship confidence, knowledge of warning signs, relationship deciding, self-efficacy in romantic relationships, conflict engagement, withdrawal, compliance, relationship beliefs, control, abuse and violence at the end of the posttest compared to the control group. Individuals participating in the psychoeducation program displayed a significant improvement in the variables of relaitonship confidence, knowledge of warning signs, self-efficacy in romantic relationships, relationship deciding, conflict engagement, withdrawal, compliance, positive problem solving, relationship beliefs, control, and abuse at the end of the posttest compared to the control group. At the end of both programs, the effect on the variables of relationship beliefs, conflict engagement, withdrawal, compliance, relaitonship confidence, knowledge of warning signs, and self-efficacy in romantic relationships continued at the end of the follow-up measurements.