The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Cognitive-Emotional Regulation, Resilience, and Self-control Strategies in Divorced Women

Background: Divorce is one of the most stressful events leading to emotional distress and behavioral problems in individuals. Meanwhile, women are more vulnerable than men to the consequences of divorce.  Objectives: The objective of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on cognitive emotional regulation, resilience, and self-control strategies in divorced women. Materials and Methods: The present quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test with a control group was conducted on all divorced women referring to the Justice Counseling Center in Babol, Iran in the second half of the year 2017 and the first half of the year 2018. The samples were selected using available sampling and divided into the experimental and control groups (n=30 per group). Data collection tools included the Cognitive Emotional Strategies Questionnaire, Resilient Scale, and Self-Control Questionnaire. Each group was first subjected to the pre-test. Then, the experimental group received ACT (Hayes et al., 2004) through 12 90-min sessions. The post-test was then performed for both groups. Data were analyzed using the SPSS. V. 22 software and multivariate covariance analysis test. Results: ACT was effective in cognitive regulation of positive emotion (F=67.88, P<0.0001), cognitive regulation of negative emotion (F=62.11, P<0.0001), resilience (F=61.95, P<0.0001), and self-control (F=38.36, P<0.0001). The mean score of cognitive regulation of positive emotion, cognitive regulation of negative emotion, resilient, and self-controlling in pre-test and post-test were not significantly different from each other (P<0.05).  Conclusion: The results showed that ACT led to an increase in positive cognitive regulation, resilient, self-controlling, and a decrease in negative cognitive regulation in divorced women.

Keywords:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy , Cognitive emotion regulation , Resilience , Self-controlling , Divorced women