The Impact of Positive Psychotherapy on Adolescent Girls’ Subjective Well-being and Emotional Regulation in Divorced Families

Introduction: Children who experience divorce suffer significant psychological, emotional, and cognitive damage. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy on the subjective well-being and emotional regulation of adolescent girls from divorced families.Methods: The research method was semi-experimental, with the pretest and posttest design, a control group, and a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population comprised adolescent divorced girls in the first year of high school in Rasht (Iran) during 2022-2023. The study included 27 adolescents who were selected through the purposive sampling method and assigned into experimental and control groups (14 adolescents in the experimental and 13 adolescents in the control group). For 8 weeks, the adolescents in the experimental group received positive psychotherapy in 8 sessions each lasting 90 minutes. Two questionnaires including, the subjective well-being scale (SBWS) and the emotional regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) were used in this study. The obtained data were analyzed using mixed ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test with SPSS software.Results: The results showed that positive psychotherapy improved the subjective well-being (F=31.97, Eta=0.56, P≤0.001) and emotional regulation (F=28.89, Eta=0.54, P≤0.001) of adolescent divorced girls. The effect size of the present intervention on mental well-being and emotional regulation was 0.56 and 0.54, respectively.Conclusion: Based on the findings of the research, positive psychotherapy using techniques, such as a having positive outlook on life, and teaching optimism and hope for the future, could be used to enhance the subjective well-being and emotional regulation of adolescent girls from divorced families.