Comparison of the effectiveness of solution-based approach and compassion-focused therapy on emotional cognitive regulation and post-traumatic stress disorder in female-headed households

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of solution-focused approach and compassion-focused therapy on emotional cognitive regulation and post-traumatic stress disorder in female-headed households.

The research method was quasi-experimental having pre-test and post-test with a control group. The statistical population included female-headed households who referred to the Welfare Center of Tehran province in 2021. Thirty-six female-headed households were selected through simple random sampling and randomly assigned to three groups of 12 (two experimental groups and one control group). The research instruments were Mississippi (2006) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale and Garnfsky, Grich & Spinhaven (2002) Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Participants in the experimental group received Grant’s (2011) Solution-focused counseling sessions and Gilbert’s (2010) Compassionate Therapy sessions, both for 8 sessions. In addition to descriptive statistics, analysis of covariance and Benferoni pair comparison were used to analyze the data.

The results of data analysis showed that the differences between the three groups in the variables of adaptive emotion regulation (F=30.61, P <0.001), uncompromising emotion regulation (F=22.73, P<0.001) and post-traumatic stress disorder (F=37.45, P <0.001), is significant. There is no significant difference between solution-focused therapy and compassion-focused therapy on the regulation of compromised emotion and post-traumatic stress disorder, but there is a significant difference in the non-compromised variable.

The findings of this study shows that solution-focused therapy and compassion-focused therapy were both effective in improving cognitive emotion regulation and stress disorder (PTSD), and of the two approaches can be used to reduce emotional regulation and post-traumatic stress disorder in female-headed Households.