Comparison of the effectiveness of Emotional Schema Therapy with Self-Differentiation Method on marital burnout in women

This study was conducted aimed at comparing the effectiveness of Emotional Schemas Therapy (EST) and Self-Differentiation Method on marital burnout.

Method was a quasi-experimental study with two experimental groups, 1 control group, pretest posttest design and 2-month follow-up. The statistical population consisted of 53 married women referring to Counseling Center of Department of Education, Region 6 of Tehran in 2018 from which 45 qualified women were selected by purposeful sampling method and assigned randomly to three groups, with each group consisting of 15 women. Data collection tools were the Pains marital Burnout Measure (1996), Leahy Emotional Schema Scale (2016), and Bowen’s Differentiation of Self Scale (Kerr & Bowen, 2004). Each program was presented to the experimental groups in eight 90-minute sessions once a week and the data were analyzed using a mixed ANOVA with repeated measure.

According to the results, the effects of Emotional Schemas Therapy and Self-Differentiation Method on marital burnout were (F= 7.71, P= 0.01), (F= 11.55, P= 0.002), on physical exhaustion were (F= 21.34, P= 0.001), (F= 15.86, P= 0.001), on emotional exhaustion were (F= 6.60, P= 0.016), (F= 13.76, P= 0.001) and on mental exhaustion were (F= 8.73, P= 0.01), (F= 14.61, P= 0.001) respectively, and the effects remained stable in the follow-up phase. The results of Tukey’s post-hoc test indicated that there was no significant difference between the two experimental groups.

Emotional Schemas Therapy and SelfDifferentiation Method can help couples to become aware of these feelings and adaptable, and their use can be effective in building close and intimate relationships between couples.