The Effect of Rollo May's Existential Psychotherapy on Death Anxiety, Loneliness and The Meaning of Life in Female Heads of Households

The number of female heads of households has been increasing in recent years, which has led to severe psychological pressure in this group of women. Performing psychological interventions for this cohort can be helpful in improving their mental health. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of Rollo May's existential psychotherapy on death anxiety, loneliness and the meaning of life for female heads of households.

Methods and Materials: 

The research was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design, a control group and a two-month follow-up phase. The statistical population included all female heads of households in Esfahan welfare organization. The statistical sample consisted of 30 women who were selected by Targeted sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental (15 people) and control (15 people) groups. The experimental group underwent Rollo May's existential psychotherapy for ten 90-minute sessions and the control group remained on the waiting list. Both groups were evaluated in the pre-test, post-test and the two-month follow-up phase by Templer Death Anxiety Scale (1970), Russell et al.'s Loneliness Scale (1980) and Steger's Meaning in Life Questionnaire (2010). In order to check and analyze the data, SPSS23 statistical software and repeated measures analysis of variance method were used.

The results showed that existential psychotherapy had a significant effect on the improvement of death anxiety, the presence of meaning, search for meaning, and feeling of loneliness in female heads of the family in the post-test stage, and this effect remained in the follow-up phase as well (p<0.001).

The results of the research indicate the significant effectiveness of the Existential psychotherapy in death anxiety, loneliness and the meaning of life for female heads of households; Therefore, the responsible institutions should provide the conditions of free existential psychotherapy interventions for female heads of families so that the conditions of these families will be more suitable.