The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Education on Cognitive Avoidance and Marital Satisfaction of Women with Marital Problems

Marital satisfaction is the principle of continuity of a marital bond and it is important to identify effective interventions to strengthen it. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on cognitive avoidance and marital satisfaction of women with marital problems.

The present study was a quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design and control group. The statistical population included all women who referred to Tolooesalamat psychological and counseling center in Tehran in 1398. Among them, 32 people were selected by purposive sampling method based on the inclusion criteria and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups (16 people in each group). The experimental group underwent 8 sessions of 90-minute acceptance and commitment therapy. Data collection tools were Sexton and Dougas Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire and Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS-21 software through univariate analysis of covariance.

The results showed that acceptance and commitment therapy is effective in reducing cognitive avoidance and increasing marital satisfaction of women with marital problems (P <0.05).

According to the results, in designing programs related to promoting family health and marital relationships, acceptance and commitment based therapy can be used as an effective intervention in improving cognitive avoidance and marital satisfaction.