The Effectiveness of Affective–Reconstructive Couple Therapy on Cognitive Emotion Regulation in Women Affected by Infidelity

Among all the problems that can occur in a marital relationship, infidelity is the most severe and threatening point for the stability of the relationship. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of Affective–Reconstructive Couple Therapy on the cognitive emotion regulation in women affected by infidelity.

Methods and Materials: 

The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test and follow-up design. The statistical population of the study included all women affected by marital infidelity who referred to the counseling clinic of Eltiam and Mehrafza in Babolsar city in the years 2018, 2019 and 2020. The sample size included 24 couples, i.e. 12 couples of the experimental group (Affective-reconstructive couple therapy) and 12 couples of the control group, which were selected by available sampling method and randomly replaced in the groups. Garnefski et al.'s (2001) cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire was used to collect data. The method of data analysis was analysis of variance with repeated measurements.

The obtained results showed that affective-reconstructive couple therapy was effective in improving the emotional cognitive regulation strategies of women affected by infidelity (p≤0.05).

According to the findings, it can be said that affective- reconstructive couple therapy is effective in reducing emotional problems and improving emotional regulation strategies of women.