Participants' Experiences With the In-Person and Online Gottman Seven Principles Program for Couples Enhancement: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Research indicates that relationship education programs are effective for both high-risk and low-risk couples. However, the effects observed vary significantly among studies, being large in some studies and lacking in others. This variability emphasises the need for more research within the field of relationship education. There is a need for more research regarding participants' experiences of engaging in various kinds of relationship education programs. The Gottman Seven Principles Couples Program (G7P) is a new relationship education program based on John Gottman's research. In the present study, a qualitative approach was selected to illuminate the participants' experiences with the G7P courses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first qualitative study on this course. The aims were to explore why participants joined the G7P course in person or online, how they experienced it and how useful they found it. Reflexive thematic analysis has been used to analyse the experiences of 12 course participants. We generated four main themes: (1) reasons to attend; (2) impact of course organisation; (3) impact on the couple's relationship; and (4) motivation to devote more time to the couple's relationship. This small-scale qualitative study discusses how participants appear to have benefitted from the G7P courses, suggesting their generally positive attitudes towards relationship education programs.