The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training on Emotional Failure and Distress Tolerance of Women Prone to Emotional Divorce

Introduction: Family is the foundation of both individual and social life and the core of married life. Objective: The present research aimed to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based training on the dimensions of alexithymia and distress tolerance in women prone to emotional divorce. Method: This research was a semi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group. The study population consisted of married women prone to emotional divorce referring to psychological counseling centers in the city of Babol during the first quarter of 2023. A total of 30 patients were selected through a convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to two groups: Experimental (n=15) and control (n=15). The Couple Burnout Measure (Pines, 1996), the Alexithymia Scale (Bagby et al., 1994), and the Distress Tolerance Scale (Simons and Ghaher, 2005) were used to collect data. The mindfulness-based training program, based on the Segal et al.’s (2002) model, was administered merely in the experimental group for eight 90-minute sessions. Data were analyzed via multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) using SPSS version 24. Results: The results demonstrated a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental and control groups regarding alexithymia, distress tolerance, and their components in women prone to emotional divorce (p<0.01). Overall, mindfulness-based training had a significant effect on both alexithymia and distress tolerance (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Based on the results, mindfulness training had a significant effect on alexithymia and distress tolerance in women prone to emotional divorce. Therefore, this program can be utilized to help women prone to emotional divorce