Effectiveness of Dialectic Behavior Therapy on the Experiential Avoidance and Psychological Distress in the Girls With the Experience of Domestic Violence

the experience of domestic violence causes the girls to face different psychological and emotional damages. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the purpose of investigating the effectiveness of dialectic behavior therapy on the experiential avoidance and psychological distress in the girls with the experience of domestic violence.

the present study was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest and control group design. The statistical population of the present study included the girls with the experience of domestic violence in academic year 2019-20. 30 girls with the record of domestic violence were selected through purposive sampling method and they were randomly accommodated into experimental and control groups (each group of 15 girls). After starting the intervention, 2 girls in the experimental group and 3 girls in the control group quit taking part in the study. The experimental group received ten ninety-minute sessions of training dialectic behavior therapy (Linhan, 2004) during two-and-a-half months. The applied questionnaires in the present study were experiential avoidance questionnaire (Bond et al, 2011) and psychological distress (Kesler et al, 2003). The data from the study were analyzed through ANCOVA method.

the results showed that dialectic behavior therapy has significant effect on the experiential avoidance and psychological distress in the girls with the experience of domestic violence (p<0.001) in a way that this therapy succeeded in decreasing experiential avoidance and psychological distress in these girls.