Conflicts between couples in their first few years of marriage : therapeutic interventions of social workers in these conflicts

Abstract

This study focuses on the Therapeutic Interventions done by social workers with couples who encounter any problems or conflicts in their few years of marriage. The author chose to write this dissertation on this topic because the number of marital breakdowns is increasing each year (Giddens A., 1995). The last census showed that 2.4 percent of married couples are separated in Malta. Moreover Dr. Agela Abela’s - own research estimates that 20 per cent of Maltese couples at a cross sectional level may be going through distressful marital relationship (Bugeja Z, 1999). However according to James & Wilson (1986) the first few years of marriage are critical since there is a high rate of divorce in short-duration marriages. Therefore this dissertation aims to investigate and make an evaluation of what type of therapeutic interventions is being done by social workers in Malta who work with conflicts encountered by couples in the first stage of the family life cycle. After an extensive literature review about common conflicts encountered by couples in their few years of marriage and the particular contributions which social workers might make to couple conflict resolution, information was gathered by the means of a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was delivered to all the social workers in all agencies who work with couples who encounter some type of conflict in their few years of marriage. Results obtained show that there are about six agencies that can offer help couples who encounter any type of conflict however there are few Social Workers working in this sector, although couples asking for help is on the increase. From these social workers only few are qualified Social Workers who have had a special training to work with couples and unfortunately some of them work in non-social work agencies. The conflicts encountered are many during the first phase of the family life-cycle and the state together with the church should make prevention programmes in order that such conflicts would not arise and a unit of specialised social workers should be created so that when such conflicts arise the couple would know where to go before the relationship comes to an end.