Abstract
BACKGROUND: Couple interventions focus on resolving relationship issues and improving partners' intimacy. Several intervention models are used on different occasions to deal with the issues. The present systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the effectiveness of such couple interventions dealing with marital distress. METHODS: Using the PRISMA guidelines for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses, a search was carried out to identify published articles in the areas of study. The meta-analysis investigated the effectiveness of couple interventions by comparing the post-intervention assessments of the experimental and control groups. RESULTS: The systematic review helped to identify twelve empirical studies published within the last ten years in the following databases: ScienceDirect, EBSCO, APA PsycINFO, NCBI, ProQuest, and Google Scholar. Meta-analysis showed a statistically significant overall effect size (Cohen's d = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.56 - 1.14). Cochran's Q showed that there was a substantial difference between the studies. There were signs of publication bias. CONCLUSION: The current study revealed an overall large effect size, indicating that different couple interventions had a noticeable impact on distressed couples who received interventions as opposed to couples who did not receive any interventions.