The Effectiveness of a Unified Protocol for the Family Therapy on Emotional Divorce and Marital Boredom in Women with Marital Conflict

Marital conflicts are normal in a couple’s life, and the important thing is how they resolve such conflicts. This integrated therapy plan has been created by considering several theories to reduce couples’ marital conflicts. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a unified protocol based on the McMaster model of the family, compassion-focused therapy, and mindfulness-based therapy on emotional divorce and marital boredom of women with marital conflict.

The present study used a quasi-experimental method with a pre-test, post-test design and a control group. The research population included all women with marital conflicts referred to four selected counseling centers in District 2 of Tehran Municipality, Iran, in 2019. A total of 100 women were selected by a convenient sampling method. Then, they filled out the emotional divorce scale and the marital disaffection scale. They were then randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups (each group with 15 participants). The participants in the intervention group underwent the intervention within a 12-session training package. After the 3 months, the follow-up test was taken. Upon the completion of the intervention, the participants in both groups completed the questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed using multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) by SPSS V. 24 software.

The results indicated a significant difference between the intervention and control groups in terms of emotional divorce (P=0.001, F=57.67) and marital boredom (P=0.001, F=26.80) in the post-test phase. Besides, after 3 months, using Bonferroni post hoc test, it was found that the difference in scores in both post-test and follow-up stages was significant (P=0.005)

The transdiagnostic treatment can decrease emotional divorce and marital boredom of women with marital conflict. This unified model can be applied by family and marriage counselors and other mental health professionals to resolve conflicts between couples.