Comparing the Effectiveness of Mindfulness based Compassion Therapy and Positive Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Self-Efficacy of Female Headed Households

Due to the lack of proper training, female-headed households are suddenly faced with a lot of responsibilities without prior training, as a result of which they suffer stressful conditions and psychological pressure, and finally, the self-efficacy of these females is affected. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based compassion therapy and positive cognitive-behavioral therapy on female-headed households' self-efficacy.

The design of this research was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and three-month follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of research included female-headed households in Shahrekord in the year 2022. In this research, 60 women whose self-efficacy questionnaire score were between 17 and 34 were selected through purposive sampling and were randomly assigned to 2 experimental groups and one control group (20 persons in each group). Then, the experimental groups were treated with eight 120-minute mindfulness-based compassion therapy and positive cognitive-behavioral therapy. The data were collected from the GSE-17 self-efficacy questionnaire, and finally, were analyzed through repeated measure analysis of variance.

The findings showed that in the two stages of post-test and follow-up, the average score of self-efficacy in the two experimental groups was significantly different from the control group. Also, the results of the findings indicated the greater effectiveness of positive cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Based on the results of this research, it is suggested to use positive cognitive-behavioral therapy along with other treatment methods to increase the self-efficacy of female-headed households.