Effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Marital Adjustment and Dysfunctional Attitudes among Married Students

Introduction: Increasing marital adjustment along with improving dysfunctional attitudes will increase the vitality and satisfaction of the couplechr('39')s emotional-psychological needs. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy on marital adjustment and dysfunctional attitudes among married students. Methods: The research method was experimental and pre-test, post-test with a control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of married students referred to private counseling centers in Kerman city. The sampling method was purposive and 30 couples (60 individuals) were selected and assigned to an experimental and control group randomly. The experimental groups were treated in 12 sessions with 90 minutes once a week, but no action was taken for the control group. Spanier Marital Adjustment Inventory (1976) and Weisman & Beckchr('39')s dysfunctional attitude Inventory (1978) were used before and after treatment and training. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance in SPSS 19. The significance level was considered 0.01. Results: Mean and standard deviation of marital adjustment in the pretest in the experimental and control groups were 61.9±6.30 and 60.10 ± 5.07 and in the posttest were 86.86±8.21 and 60.09±6.34. Also, the mean and standard deviation in the variable of dysfunctional attitudes in the pre-test in the experimental and control groups were 104.16±8.97 and 103.15±​​9.52 and in the post-test were 97.16 ± 7.50 and 102/15 ± 8/89. Therefore, in the experimental group, the score of marital adjustment was significantly different compared to the control group (p <0.01), but there was no significant difference in the variable of dysfunctional attitudes (p <0.01). Conclusion: Acceptance and commitment based treatment method increases the level of marital adjustment and this technique can be used to improve the relationship between married students and raise the level of mental health of the family and society. However, more research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of group-based acceptance and commitment therapy on dysfunctional attitudes.