Comparing the Effectiveness of Group Therapy Based on Cognitive-Existential Therapy and Compassion-Focused Approach on Emotional Self-regulation of Divorced Female Heads of Household

Monemiyan , Gita; Mardani , Mojgan; Ghanbari Panah , Afsaneh; Omidi , Abdollah

Volume 14 - Articles-1403 MEJDS (2024) 14: 157 | Back to browse issues page

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Monemiyan G, Mardani M, Ghanbari Panah A, Omidi A. Comparing the Effectiveness of Group Therapy Based on Cognitive-Existential Therapy and Compassion-Focused Approach on Emotional Self-regulation of Divorced Female Heads of Household. MEJDS 2024; 14 :157-157
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-2869-en.html

Comparing the Effectiveness of Group Therapy Based on Cognitive-Existential Therapy and Compassion-Focused Approach on Emotional Self-regulation of Divorced Female Heads of Household

Gita Monemiyan¹

, Mojgan Mardani ^*²

, Afsaneh Ghanbari Panah²

, Abdollah Omidi³

1- PhD Student in Counseling, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2- Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
3- Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Medicine, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran

Abstract: (1296 Views)

Abstract

Background & Objectives: The number of female heads of household has increased each year due to various reasons, such as divorce, the death of a spouse, or other events. Regarding the increase in personal, economic, and social stress caused by being the head of a family in today's industrialized and fast–paced world, this group of society is exposed to serious threats. The ability to regulate emotions can reduce the problems experienced by these women. Interventions to improve the emotions of these women can play an important role in preventing their psychological and social harm. One therapeutic approach that appears effective in improving the strategies used to regulate emotions in female heads of households is existential cognitive therapy. Compassion–focused therapy is another therapeutic approach that appears to be effective in improving emotional self–regulation in female heads of household. So, the present research was conducted to compare the effects of group counseling with an existential, cognitive approach and an approach based on compassion on the emotional self–regulation of divorced female heads of households.

Methods: The research method is quasi–experimental, and employed a pretest–posttest and follow–up experimental design with a control group. The present research population was all divorced women who were the head of the household under the coverage of the relief committee in Iran in 2021. Of whom, 36 people were selected in a targeted manner after controlling the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The inclusion and exclusion criteria included women in the age range of 20 to 55 years, a history of permanent official marriage and living together with a spouse for at least one year, having at least one child, having consent to participate in group counseling sessions, having literacy and at least a cycle education degree, not receiving other individual and group counseling services, as well as reading relevant psychology books, being covered by the relief committee, officially divorced and being the head of the household, not working and lacking a pension from father, brother or husband. They were randomly selected and replaced in 3 groups of 12 people (two experimental groups and one control group). Before conducting the experiment, a short interview was conducted, and the research questionnaire was implemented to be used as a pretest and a criterion for screening and selecting the target members who needed more intervention. The sample group was chosen purposefully and among the volunteers participating in the experiment. Then, the volunteers were divided into the experimental and control groups by lottery and completely random without any previous bias. Finally, the intervention program based on existential cognition and compassion was implemented in 8 sessions of 120 minutes for the experimental groups, and no training was provided for the control group during this period. The research tool was the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) (Garnefski et al., 2007), which was translated and standardized by Hosni (2010). To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were used in the repeated measurement method along with the Bonferroni post hoc test at a significant level of 0.05 using SPSSversion 20.
Results: The effects of time and group and the interaction effect of time and group on emotion regulation strategies were significant (p<0.001). In pairwise comparisons, there was a significant difference between the three groups in adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in the posttest of both strategies (p<0.05). In the posttest, the two compassion–based therapy and existential cognitive therapy groups showed a significant difference in both dimensions of the strategies (p<0.05). At follow–up, there was no significant difference between the two existential, cognitive therapy, and compassion–based therapy groups (p>0.05). Still, compared to the control group, both treatments differed significantly at follow–up (p<0.001).
Conclusion: According to the findings, both compassion therapy and existential cognitive therapy are effective interventions in regulating adaptive and maladaptive emotions in divorced female heads of households, and no significant difference is observed in the long–term comparison of the two treatments.

Keywords: Emotional self–regulation, Cognitive existential therapy, Compassion–Focused therapy, Divorce, Head of household, Women

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Type of Study: Original Research Article | Subject: Counseling

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