Comparing the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and schema therapy on tolerance of uncertainty of divorced women referring to welfare

Subject Areas : Islamic-Iranian Family Studies Journal

sajjad almardani ¹ , Masoumeh Azemoudeh ² , reza Abdi ³ , Seyed davoud Hoseini Nasab ⁴

1 - PhD student in psychology, Tabriz branch,Islamic Azad University,Tabriz,Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Tabriz Branch,Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
3 - Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Shahid Madani University of Azerbaijan, Iran
4 - . Professor, Department of Psychology, Tabriz branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran

Received: 2023-08-22 Accepted : 2023-09-22 Published : 2023-08-23

Keywords: acceptance and commitment therapy, Divorced women welfare, Schema Therapy, tolerance of uncertainty,

Abstract :

 Introduction: Divorce is one of the stressful experiences of the family that can lead to conflict and incompatibility between couples. The purpose of this research was to Comparing the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and schema therapy on tolerance of uncertainty of divorced women referring to welfare. Methods: The method of this research was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The statistical population consists of all the women who referred to the welfare of Tabriz city in the second half of 1402-1401, of which 60 people were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group (20 people in each group) by random sampling. The pre-test and post-test were conducted after the treatment interventions based on acceptance and commitment and schema therapy. McLean's tolerance of uncertainty questionnaire (1993) was used to collect data and multivariate analysis of covariance test was used to analyze the hypotheses. Results: The results showed that both interventions were effective on the tolerance of uncertainty variable (p<0.05). According to the results of the present study, there was a difference between the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and schema therapy in the dependent variable, and the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy was more than schema therapy. Conclusion: The results of the present study show that the treatment based on acceptance and commitment plays a role in increasing the tolerance of uncertainty and improving the condition of divorced women.Extended AbstractIntroductionDivorced women are among the most vulnerable groups in society, who face mental, psychological, social, economic and cultural difficulties and disabilities. Divorce is the most common manifestation of severe conflict, and more than half of the couples who seek counseling end up getting divorced. According to official statistics in Iran, out of every 1000 marriages, about 200 cases lead to divorce. According to the statistics of the Civil Registration Organization of the country in 2019, the growth rate of divorce in Iran was about 3.6% compared to 2018. Therefore, divorce is the most important threat to the foundation of the family, and it is very important to pay attention to issues related to divorce and women who suffer from it. It is clear that divorce is one of the factors that cause disruption and confusion in people's lives. The decision to divorce is the result of intense internal pressure (such as ambiguity tolerance) on at least one spouse, which may occur through unmet needs. Divorce occurs when couples fail to meet the attachment needs of security, safety, and satisfaction of each other, that is, the ambiguity and confusion of marital relations represents the failure of couples to establish a relationship with a secure attachment style. In this regard, one of the variables that is important in divorced people is tolerance of ambiguity. Ambiguity tolerance is defined as how people process, interpret and react to information from stimuli that are considered ambiguous. A person who has a high tolerance for ambiguity does not feel threatened or difficult in adapting to a new and fresh environment, because he has accepted the existence of a degree of ambiguity as one of the principlesof life and knows that our information is never complete for decision-making, and with patience and Boredom can recognize the ambiguous situation and find a solution, and divorced women probably feel more ambiguity and have less tolerance for ambiguity due to psychological disturbances. Also, most divorced women feel uncertainty and uncertainty about their future life and feel weak in the face of problems. This research uses treatment based on commitment and acceptance and schema therapy. Considering the importance of the ambiguity tolerance component in divorced women and considering that the psychological damage caused by divorce in women occurs chronically; This raises the need for psychological interventions. According to the above researches, the present study wants to answer the question that among the methods of treatment based on acceptance and commitment (ACT) and schema therapy, which one is more effective in tolerating the ambiguity of divorced women who refer to welfare?MethodologyThe method of this research was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The statistical population consists of all the women who referred to the welfare of Tabriz city in the second half of 1402-1401, of which 60 people were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group (20 people in each group) by random sampling. (Matched by gender, age range and educational and economic conditions). The pre-test and post-test were conducted after the treatment interventions based on acceptance and commitment and schema therapy. McLean's tolerance of uncertainty questionnaire (1993) was used to collect data and multivariate analysis of covariance test was used to analyze the hypotheses.ResultsThe number of 20 people in the intervention group of acceptance and commitment therapy and 20 people in the intervention group of schema therapy and 20 control people with mean (standard deviation) age of 28.87 (2.71) and 29.24 (2.93) respectively. and 31/63 (3/32) participated in this research. The default check of homogeneity of variances is established to tolerance of uncertainty (F=0.420, P=0.659). The Mbox test value was equal to 2.71, the corresponding significance level was equal to 0.51, and the assumption of homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices was established (p<0.001). Table 1: Mean and standard deviation of tolerance of uncertainty by group and timeTable 1 showed that the average tolerance of uncertainty in the acceptance and commitment group was 22.85 in the pre-test, which increased to 47.50 in the post-test. In the schema therapy group, the average score in the pre-test was 28.95, which increased to 42.90 in the post-test. In the control group, the average in the pre-test was 24.25, which increased to 26.55 in the post-test.Table 2: The results of the analysis of covariance in order to compare the effectiveness of the two interventions of acceptance and commitment and schema therapy on the scale of tolerance of uncertaintyThe results of Table 2 showed that there was a significant difference in the effectiveness of the two intervention methods of acceptance and commitment and schema therapy on tolerance of uncertainty (p<0.05). The significance level of the analysis of covariance test showed the difference in the effectiveness of the two intervention methods on tolerance of uncertainty.Table 3: Comparison of the adjusted means of the tolerance of uncertainty scale in the groups with the LSD testThe results showed that the adjusted average of tolerance of uncertainty in the acceptance and commitment group was 48.24 and in the schema therapy group it was 42.15, and the average of the acceptance and commitment group was 6.09 points higher than the schema therapy group and this difference was statistically significant and showed that the effectiveness of the acceptance and commitment intervention on tolerance of uncertainty was greater than the schema therapy intervention (p<0.05). DiscussionExamining the findings of the research showed that there is a difference between the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and schema therapy on the tolerance of uncertainty of divorced women referring to welfare, and the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy was more than schema therapy. The findings of the present study are consistent with previous studies (Aghili, kashiri, 2022).ConclusionThe results of the present study show that the treatment based on acceptance and commitment plays a role in increasing the tolerance of uncertainty and improving the condition of divorced women and can have implications for social support for these people.Finally, non-implementation of follow-up due to time constraints, small number of samples and targeted sampling method were among the limitations of the present study. It is suggested that in order to increase the generalizability of the findings, similar researches should be conducted considering long-term follow-up periods, with a larger number of samples and using possible sampling. According to the findings, it is suggested that therapeutic intervention based on acceptance and commitment be used as a beneficial intervention to improve and increase tolerance of uncertainty of divorced women in welfare and treatment centers. AcknowledgmentsWe hereby express our thanks and appreciation to the honorable directorate of Tabriz welfare admission, and all those who helped us in this research. FundingThe present research is taken from the doctoral thesis of the second author "Sajjad Alamardani Someeh" and without financial support.Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate"This article is extracted from the specialized doctoral thesis of the first author in Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran" and has the code of ethics IR.IAU.TABRIZ.REC.1401.307 from the Ethics Committee of Tabriz Islamic Azad University Medical Sciences Branch. Conflict of interestsThe authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in this article. RefferencesAbu-Ras, R.,  & Itzhaki-Braun, Y. 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