The effect of close relationships focused psychoeducation program on attachment styles, emotion regulation and romantic relationship beliefs

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a close relationships focused psychoeducation program on attachment styles, emotion regulation, and romantic relationship beliefs in university students. An experimental method was used, in which the experimental and control groups were pre-tested, post-tested, and follow-up tested. Twenty-two students (11 in the experimental group and 11 in the control group) enrolled in Akdeniz University participated in the study. The Personal Information Form, Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and Relationship Beliefs Questionnaire were used for the study. The experimental group received an 8-session psychoeducation program, while the control group received no intervention. The psychoeducation program was conducted in face-to-face sessions once a week for 90 minutes over an 8-week period. Both the experimental and control groups completed the scales as a pretest before the psychoeducation program and as a posttest after its completion. A follow-up test was conducted with the experimental group 3 months after the completion of the program to assess the long-term effectiveness of the program. Data were analyzed using the statistical methods "Mann Whitney U," "Friedman ANOVA" and "Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test." The results revealed a decrease in the avoidance sub-dimension of attachment style and difficulties in emotion regulation in the experimental group that had participated in the close relationship focused psychoeducation program. The follow-up test confirmed the permanence of this change. However, no significant changes were observed in the anxiety sub-dimension of attachment styles and romantic relationship beliefs. In addition, there were no significant differences between pretest and posttest scores in the control group. When comparing posttest scores, a significant difference was observed between the experimental and control groups in the avoidance sub-dimension of attachment style, while no significant difference was observed in the anxiety sub-dimension of attachment style, emotion regulation, and romantic relationship beliefs.