Investigating the Effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Cognitive Therapy on Marital Conflict and Attachment Styles in Women Seeking Divorce

Introduction: Marital conflicts and insecure attachment styles are among the effective factors in increasing divorce rate. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of compassion-focused cognitive therapy in reducing marital conflict and improving attachment styles in women seeking divorce. Methods: The present study was a quasi-experimental one with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. A total of 30 women seeking divorce who referred to counseling centers in District 5 of Tehran in the year 2023 were selected using convenience sampling, and were randomly assigned to either the experimental or the control group(15 people in each group). The intervention group received eight 90-minute sessions of compassion-focused cognitive therapy training. The data collection tools were the Marital Conflict Questionnaire by Barati and Sanaei(1996) and the Adult Attachment Questionnaire by Collins and Reed(1990). Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance in SPSS version 26 software. Results: The results of the analysis of covariance test showed that in the experimental group, after the intervention, the scores of marital conflict(p<0/001) , avoidant attachment style(p<0/001) and anxious attachment style(p<0/001) decreased significantly compared to the pre-test, and the scores of secure attachment style(p<0/001) showed a significant increase. However, in the control group, no significant difference was observed in any of the variables (p>0/001). Conclusion: The results of this study show that compassion-focused cognitive therapy has a positive effect on marital conflict and attachment styles. This type of therapy can be used as an effective strategy for improving marital conflict and attachment styles among women who are seeking divorce.