The effect of investment model based premarital maintenance skills psycho-educational group on relationship commitment

In this study, the effect of investment model based relationship maintanence skill training psycho-educational program on relationship commitment of university students who has romantic involvement was investigated. The research was conducted in 2015-2016 academic year with university students who volenteered for the study in Hatay Mustafa Kemal University. The research is comparison group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design study. There were 18 students in experimental group, 18 students in control group and 36 students in total participated to the research. While the experimental group participated in a psycho-educational program based on Investment Model (Rusbult, 1980) and Relationship Maintanence Mechanisms (Rusbult, Drigotas ve Verette, 1994), the control group did not partipicate in any kind of application. The relationship maintening program was designed in eight sessions and six of them consisted of explanations and exercises about six relationship maintanence mechanisms (adaptive behaviour, willingness to sacrifice, forgiveness, cognitive interdependence, positive illusion and resisting temptation). To investigate the effectiveness of the program The Investment Scale (Rusbult, Martz ve Agnew, 1998), DyadicAdjustment Scale (Spainer, 1976) and Multidimensional Relationship Scale (Snell, Schicke ve Arbeiter, 2002) was employed. These measures were applied before the program, afer the program and three months after the program to the experimental and control groups. The qualitative data of the study was collected via Critical Incidents in Group Work (Kivlighan and Goldfine, 1991) and Evaluation at the End of The Group By Members (DeLucia-Waack, 2006). The findings of the research indicate that relationship maintenance skills psycho-educational program increased the relationship satisfaction, relationship investments, general relationship commitment level and couple well-being. Furthermore inner control perception about relationship increased whereas outer control perception decreased. Three-month following measures also indicate the parmenent effect of the program in addition to increased level of resisting temptation. In the light of these findings, it can be said that relationship maintenance skill program is effective in improving relationship commitment level and couple well-being as well as increasing personal responsibility in relationship. Keywords: Investment model, commitment, relationship maintenance, psycho-education