The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Marital Conflict, Emotional Divorce, and Self-Differentiation Among Married Women with Relationship Distress
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Objective: This study investigates the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in reducing marital conflict and emotional divorce, while enhancing self-differentiation in married women.
Methods and Materials: A quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and two-month follow-up was used. The sample consisted of 30 married women who sought counseling in Mashhad in 2022, randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 15) or a control group (n = 15). The intervention consisted of eight weekly sessions of ACT-based therapy. Data collection utilized the Emotional Divorce Questionnaire (Gutman, 2008), the Self-Differentiation Questionnaire (Skorn & Friedlander, 1998), and the Marital Conflict Questionnaire (Barati & Sanai, 2000). Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Bonferroni post hoc tests, and repeated measures ANOVA using SPSS version 26.
Findings: Significant improvements were observed in marital conflict (η²=0.589, p<0.001), self-differentiation (η²=0.714, p<0.001), and emotional divorce (η²=0.503, p<0.001) in the experimental group, with sustained effects during follow-up.
Conclusion: ACT-based couples therapy effectively reduces marital conflict and emotional divorce while fostering self-differentiation in married women. These findings suggest that ACT may be a promising intervention for marital counseling. Future studies should explore its long-term effectiveness with larger, more diverse populations.
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