Comparison of the Effectiveness of Affective Reconstructive and Emotion-Focused Therapy in Marital Problems and Forgiveness in Women Who Filed for a Divorce

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of Affective Reconstructive and Emotional-Focused therapy with regard to marriage issues and forgiveness in women who filled for a divorce. The research method is applied in terms of purpose and semi-experimental research design is pre-test-post-test with a control group and follow-up stage. In 2021, the statistical population comprised all Ardabil women who filed for divorce and had a prior record of child marriage (less than 18 years). The population was purposively sampled to select 45 individuals, who were then randomly allocated into two groups of 15 (one for each group: experimental and control). The research instruments included the Interpersonal Forgiveness Scale (IF-25) and the Marriage Problems Questionnaire (PMQ). The interventions comprised eight 90-minute sessions per week, each centered on affective reconstruction and emotional-focused therapy. SPSS software version 22 was utilized to conduct the data analysis, which included multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and the Bonferroni post hoc test. The results showed that in women who filed for divorce, both affective reconstruction and emotional-focused therapy increased forgiveness and decreased marital problems; however, affective reconstruction therapy demonstrated a significantly greater degree of efficacy than emotional-focused therapy. Hence, in light of the elevated marital issues and diminished forgiveness rates observed among women who have filed for divorce, affective reconstruction and emotional-focused therapies, or a synergistic blend thereof, may be implemented to improve the forgiveness rate and mitigate marital problems.

Keywords

• divorce
• forgiveness
• marriage problems
• women