Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Instruction in Reducing Marital Burnout and Alexithymia among Couples on the Brink of Divorce

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of emotion regulation instruction in reducing marital burnout and alexithymia among couples on the brink of divorce. This study was of a semi-experimental design with pre-test post-test and control group that was conducted on women referred to the intervention center in the 2nd District of Tehran. Using the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 30women were selected by convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. Before the beginning of the training, both groups received a pretest and were asked to complete the scales of Pines (1996) marital distress and Toronto (1994) Alexithymia. The experimental group was received the instruction. The training sessions for the experimental group were held weekly in one session (60 minutes) and held for 8 sessions. At the end of the sessions, both groups were subjected to post-test. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance.The results showed that emotion regulation based on Gross Model had a  significantly effect on the reduction of marital burnout and alexithymia of couple were (P≤0.001).The findings of this study indicate the effectiveness of emotional regulation training in reducing marital burnout and couples’ alexithymia on the brink of divorce. Hence, it is suggested to implement such meetings at crisis intervention centers and clinical social work services.