The Comparison of the Effectiveness of Acceptance Commitment Therapy with Resilience Training on Individual Cohesion and Emotional Divorce among Women Seeking a Divorce

 Emotional divorce occurs when the relationship of husband and wife is impaired, and their interpersonal emotional capital has become passive. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of treatment based on acceptance and commitment therapy with resilience training on sense of coherence and emotional divorce among women.

 The research method was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test, follow-up, and a control group. Participants included 90 women aged 25-45 years seeking a divorce in Tehran who had been referred to Shahid Bahonar Family Court in Tehran between January 2018 and May 2019, who were selected by convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to two experimental and one control group (each group containing 30 participants). The resilience training program was performed in 11 weekly 120-minute sessions, and acceptance and commitment treatment protocol was performed in 10 weekly 120-minute sessions. The control group did not receive any intervention. All three groups responded to an individual sense of coherence and emotional divorce questionnaires in the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. Data were analyzed using univariate analysis of covariance using SPSS software version 22.

 In the resilience training group, the mean (SD) sense of individual cohesion increased from 65.5 (8.9) in the pre-test to 79.6 (11.5) and 79.5 (11.3) in follow-up (P<0.001). In the acceptance and commitment group, the mean (SD) sense of individual cohesion increased from 64.4 (9.6) in the pre-test to 78.1 (12.1) and 77.8 (12.1) in follow-up (P<0.001). In the control group, the mean (SD) sense of individual cohesion increased from 64.1 (10.6) in the pre-test to 65.6 (9.4) and 65.4 (9.2) in follow-up, which was not significant. In the resilience training group, the mean (SD) of emotional divorce decreased from 18.2 (3.8) in the pre-test to 12.6 (3.7) and 12.4 (3.4) in follow-up (P<0.001). In the acceptance and commitment group, the mean (SD) of emotional divorce decreased from 18.5 (3.8) in the pre-test to 14.8 (3.7) and 14.6 (3.5) in follow-up (P<0.001). In the control group, the mean (SD) of emotional divorce increased from 18.7 (4.7) in the pre-test to 17.9 (4.4) and 17.7 (4.3) in follow-up, which was not significant.

 Acceptance and commitment therapy and resilience training are effective in increasing the sense of individual cohesion and reducing emotional divorce of women seeking a divorce, and resilience training were more effective on emotional divorce in women.