Background & Objectives: Achieving a satisfying or romantic marriage is almost a universal goal. Furthermore, engaging in a romantic relationship affects an individual's daily life and optimal sense; however, breaking down a relationship, called divorce, can adversely impact numerous couples. Given its highly negative social consequences, it is critical to identify divorce–concerned factors. Domestic violence against women is among the most common reasons for divorce. Moreover, it occurs in various forms, including physical violence (making injury the body parts with beatings strike using hands or other tools), psychological violence (threatening, humiliating, verbal blame, obscenity, control of women's behavior, social isolation, ban on contact with others), and sexual violence which happens at home, work, or public places. One of the most effective psychological theories that address the complications of human relations is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Thus, this study aimed to determine the effects of ACT on domestic physical, psychological, and sexual violence among women who were about to divorce.
Methods: This was a quasi–experimental study with a pretest–posttest and a control group design. The statistical population included all women on the verge of divorce referring to social emergencies in Tehran City, Iran, 2018 (N=440); 30 volunteers were selected by the convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups (n=15/group). The study's inclusion criteria were providing written informed consent forms; a minimum literacy; female gender; at least one year of living with the spouse, and the age range of 20–50 years. The exclusion criteria for the experimental group included absence from more than two therapeutic sessions and participation in other psychological interventions simultaneously. The data collection tool in pretest and posttest was the Domestic Violence Questionnaire (Nouri et al., 2012). Then, the experimental group was treated by ACT (Harris & Hyes, 2019) in eight 60–minute weekly sessions; however, the control group received no intervention. To analyze the obtained data, descriptive statistics, including mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics, including Chi–square test and Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA), were used at the significance level of 0.01 in SPSS.
Results: The present research results suggested that after adjusting the pretest scores, the mean scores of physical–psychological violence (p<0.001) and sexual violence (p=0.004) in the experimental group were significantly lower than the control group in the posttest. Also, the effect size for physical–psychological violence and sexual violence components was obtained equal to 0.350 and 0.278, respectively; thus, the effect of acceptance and commitment–based therapy on reducing the components of domestic violence in women on the verge of divorce.
Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, ACT reduces domestic violence (physical, psychological, and sexual violence) in women on the verge of divorce. Therefore, ACT can be used as an effective treatment to reduce psychological problems among women on the verge of divorce.