How participants engage with emotion-focused training for couple identity (EFT-CIDE), a 14-day self-guided mobile app...

In emotion-focused therapy for couples (EFT-C), identity is one of three relational systems alongside attachment and attraction. Emotion-Focused Training for Couple Identity (EFT-CIDE) is the first self-guided mobile app intervention targeting the identity system. Its quantitative outcomes are reported in a parallel manuscript. Although qualitative engagement work exists for other digital couple interventions, none has examined participant engagement with identity system intervention content in a self-guided mobile app format. In addition, qualitative engagement studies of digital couple interventions typically rely on post-hoc interviews; analysis of reflective text participants produce within the app itself remains uncommon.

We analysed reflective text written by 60 Slovak participants during the 14-day EFT-CIDE intervention (2,740 indexed segments). Coding combined deductive anchors from EFT-C and the respect literature with inductive codes admitted via a watchlist, using the Framework Method with a longitudinal layer. Cross-case patterns were paired with within-case trajectories across the 14-day window.

Five backbone codes had high reach across the dataset: active listening (90%), giving appreciation (88%), constructive expression (85%), repair as growth (75%), and healthy boundary setting (67%). Three asymmetric splits characterised most participants: healthy boundary setting dominated over both internal and external blocks (13:1:1), mutual cycle attribution dominated over self-blame (9:1), and repair as growth dominated over over-responsibility (8:1). Six longitudinal trajectory types organised the dataset; 32 of 60 participants reached an integrative day-14 closure ("change starts with me").

EFT-CIDE appears to work well for participants showing open engagement or distress followed by recovery, and may serve as a useful adjunct for those in sustained distress. A smaller group of participants did not engage substantively with the app format.