Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Marital Satisfaction, Emotion Regulation, and Resilience of Women Seeking Divorce in Tehran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord Branch, Shahrekord, Iran

2 Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on marital satisfaction, emotion regulation, and resilience of women seeking divorce in Tehran. Present study applied a semi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and a two-month follow-up, and it involved an experimental and a control group. The study sample was 44 women who had already filed for divorce. These women were selected as a convenience sample, and were randomly assigned to either experimental or control groups (22 participants in each group). The experimental group attended 8 sessions of 90-minute mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and the control group did not receive any intervention (waitlist). Enrich (1998), Gratz, and Romer's (2004) Emotion Regulation, and Corner and Davidson's (2003) Resilience questionnaires were used for data collection. Repeated measures ANOVA showed that all the changes in marital satisfaction, emotion regulation, and resilience including pretest to post-test, and pretest to follow-up, were significantly greater for experimental group compared to control group (all p's<0.01). However, the changes from post-test to follow-up were not statistically significant for marital satisfaction (p=0.142), emotion regulation (p=0.523), and resilience (p=0.153) indicating the maintenance of the therapeutic benefits in experimental group for a two months period. The results indicated that the mindfulness-based cognitive therapy significantly improves all three dependent variables and the benefits may last for two months. It seems mindfulness-based cognitive therapy technique can improve marital satisfaction, emotional regulation, and resilience of women seeking divorce.

Keywords

References

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Mental Health: Research and Practice
Volume 1, Issue 2
October 2022
Pages 1-9

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History

  • Receive Date: 12 January 2022
  • Revise Date: 20 June 2022
  • Accept Date: 10 August 2022

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