Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Domestic Violence and Attitude to Life of Women With Emotional Divorce

Background & Aims: Many couples never refer to a therapist or counseling centers in courts while they suffer from various degrees of marital dissatisfaction and experience emotional divorce. The impacts of marital dissatisfaction are more lasting than divorce and extend to people who are close to couples and their acquaintances, especially children. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on domestic violence and the attitude to life of women with emotional divorce. Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted using a pretest-posttest control group design. Forty women experiencing emotional divorce visiting the counseling centers of Ahvaz in ۲۰۲۱ were selected using convenience sampling and randomly divided into intervention (n = ۲۰) and control (n = ۲۰) groups. Participants completed the Domestic Violence Questionnaire and life orientation test in the pretest and posttest. The intervention group received eight ۹۰-minute sessions of ACT. Data were analyzed using univariate analysis of covariance. Results: The means ± standard deviations of post-test scores related to domestic violence and attitude to life in the experimental group were ۴۸.۹۰ ± ۶.۹۹ and ۲۵.۶۵ ± ۳.۳۱, respectively, which improved compared to the post-test of the control group. The results suggested that ACT improved domestic violence (F = ۴۲۱.۰۴, P < ۰.۰۰۱) and attitude to life (F = ۱۷۲.۳۷, P < ۰.۰۰۱) in the posttest. Conclusion: This study achieved promising results concerning the applicability of ACT. ACT was effective in reducing domestic violence and improving attitudes to life in women with emotional divorce.

Keywords:

Emotions , Divorce , Domestic violence , Acceptance and commitment therapy , Women