Abstract
Background & Objectives: Couples marry based on specific goals and wish to experience a stable and satisfying life; however, when couples have a stable and satisfying life, they also experience conflicts in their life together. Marital conflict can damage the structure of marital relations. Teaching self–compassion can help women develop a more compassionate and tolerant attitude toward themselves, improving relationship satisfaction. Marital satisfaction is directly related to psychological well–being. Psychological well–being includes positive thoughts and feelings that people have about their lives. People with poor self–criticism resolve interpersonal conflicts by considering their needs and those of others. Among the third–wave therapies, compassion therapy is an integrated, multidimensional approach that draws from neuroscience, developmental science, social science, evolutionary science, and Buddhist psychology. Some experts believe that the core of helping people is based on compassion. Therefore, this research examined the effectiveness of self–compassion training on mental well–being and self–criticism in women with marital conflicts.
Methods: The current research was quasi–experimental and was conducted with a pretest–posttest design with the control and experimental groups. The statistical population of this research comprised all women with marital conflicts referred to Mehrara Psychological Clinic in Sari City, Iran, in 2022. Among the statistical population, 30 qualified volunteers entered the study as available and were randomly assigned to two groups of self–compassion training and control (each group included 15 people). After selecting the people of the sample group and before starting the treatment program, the Ryff Psychological Well–Being Scale (Ryff, 1989) and the Levels of Self–Criticism Scale (Thompson & Zuroff, 2004) were distributed among both groups. Afterward, self–help training was implemented in the experimental group (in the form of 8 sessions of 90 minutes, each session once a week), and the control group was not subjected to any treatment program. In the end, the posttest was done again from both groups. Also, after the end of the research, the treatment programs implemented in this research were implemented in the control group to maintain the ethical standards in the study. The inclusion criteria include married women who scored above the average on the scale of marital conflicts, have at least a diploma level of education, and are not participating in other therapeutic interventions at the same time. The exclusion criteria include an absence of more than three sessions and non–observance of group therapy rules. This research observed ethical standards including obtaining informed consent and ensuring privacy and confidentiality. Also, when participating in the study, the participants could withdraw from the research and provide individual information. Data analysis was carried out in two parts: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. At the level of descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation and inferential statistics univariate covariance analysis was used. Data analysis was done using SPSS software version 24, and the significance level of the tests was considered to be 0.05.
Results: The results showed that the effect of self–compassion training on all components of mental well–being and self–criticism in women with marital conflicts was significant (p<0.001). Also, effect sizes were obtained for self–acceptance (0.75), positive relationships with others (0.80), autonomy (0.76), mastery of the environment (0.90), purposeful living (0.89), personal growth (0.94), internalized self–criticism (0.97), and comparative self–criticism (0.92).
Conclusion: The results show that self–compassion training significantly improves mental well–being and reduces self–criticism in marital conflict women. So, promoting self–compassion can be an effective strategy for managing marital conflicts in women.