Abstract
Background & Objectives: Divorce, as a bitter and annoying experience, has a negative impact on couples, families, and society. This phenomenon has spread dramatically in today's societies and increased significantly in Iran. In Iran, the ratio of divorce to marriage is very high compared to other countries in the world and ranks fourth in the world. Marital relationship disturbance causes many problems for couples. Considering the consequences of divorce for couples as well as the role of relationship disturbance in increasing divorce, it is imperative to use effective treatment approaches in conflicted couples. Among different treatment approaches, we can use mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and couple therapy-based schema approach. Hence, this research aimed to compare the effectiveness of couple therapy-based schema approach and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on the relationship disturbance of divorced couples.
Methods: The current research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-post-test and follow-up design. The statistical population of the research consisted of all the women facing divorce who were referred to Avai Counseling and Psychology Center in Paveh City, Iran, in 2021. Of whom, 45 people were recruited using convenience sampling and randomly placed into the experimental groups of couple therapy-based schema approach and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, the control group (each group with 15 people). Screening Scale for Marital and Relationship Discord (Weishman et al., 2009) was used to collect information. The mindfulness-based cognitive therapy received the therapeutic package during 8 sessions of 90 minutes. Also, the couple therapy-based schema approach received the therapeutic package during 10 sessions of 90 minutes. However, the control group did not receive any intervention during this period. Data analysis was done with repeated measures analysis of variance in SPSS-24 software at a significance level of 0.05.
Results: At the level of descriptive statistics, the mean and standard deviation of the relationship's disturbance variable in the mindfulness-based cognitive therapy were as follows: in the pretest (M=32.00, SD=2.87), posttest (M=23.00, SD= 4.37), follow-up (M=23.12, SD=4.20). The mean and standard deviation of the relationship disturbance variable in the couple therapy-based schema approach were as follows: in the pretest (M=31.73, SD=4.18), posttest (M=20.33, SD=2.19), and follow-up (M=19.93, SD=1.83). The mean and standard deviation of the relationship disturbance variable in the control group were as follows: in the pretest (M=32.53, SD=4.01), posttest (M=31.06, SD=3.69), and follow-up (M=31.33, SD=3.30). The results of data analysis showed that couple therapy with a schema approach significantly reduced relationship disturbance (p<0.001). The results of the data analysis showed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy had a significant effect on lowering relationship disturbance (p<0.001). Also, between two groups of couple therapy-based schema approach and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, no significant difference was observed in the relationship disturbance variable.
Conclusion: Overall, the study results showed that cognitive therapy based on mindfulness and couple therapy-based schema approach are effective in reducing the disturbance in a couple's relationships who are on the verge of divorce. Also, there is no significant difference between the two therapies, and both have the same effectiveness.