Relational Savoring as an Approach to Improve Marital Relationship Outcomes: A Pilot Study Among Iranian Wives

Marital relationship quality is a strong predictor of overall health, making it a critical target for prevention and intervention efforts. In Iran, rapid cultural shifts have reshaped marital dynamics, highlighting the need for accessible psychological support. Relational Savoring (RS), a brief attachment-based program, aims to strengthen relationship quality by guiding individuals to re-experience moments of positive connectedness. The present study is the first to evaluate a 4-week, group-based RS program in Iran among 96 female spouses, testing its effects on affective (positive emotion, relationship closeness) and cognitive (relationship satisfaction) domains at post-treatment and three-month follow-up, compared to a no-treatment control. The study also tested an exploratory research question regarding whether sharing savored memories with one’s partner between sessions had a differential impact relative to the traditional relational savoring protocol, which does not prescribe sharing. Results showed that the RS-Combined condition (pooling both savoring conditions) produced greater improvements across all outcomes at post-treatment with small effect sizes (marginal R 2 = 0.02–0.05), although these effects were not sustained at the three-month follow-up. Comparisons between the two savoring conditions (RS-No Share versus RS-Share) revealed mixed patterns: sharing was linked with stronger gains in positive emotion at post-treatment, whereas not sharing was associated with greater improvements in relationship closeness and satisfaction at post-treatment. We interpret these findings to suggest preliminary promise for RS, particularly RS-No Share, in improving short-term outcomes for Iranian wives. Future work should examine ways of prolonging the effects observed in this study.