Relative Effectiveness of Acceptance/Commitment and Schema Therapies on Love Trauma Syndrome and Self-Compassion in Unmarried Girls with Emotional Breakdown

Background: Failure to establish and maintain close romantic relationships with commitment can hinder an individual’s development and have adverse effects on his/her well-being in life due to the potential emergence of serious problems. The present study aimed to investigate the relative effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and schema therapy on love trauma syndrome and self-compassion in unmarried girls with emotional breakdowns. Methods: The statistical population of this study included all unmarried girls with emotional breakdowns who visited counseling centers in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province in 2022. Convenience sampling was employed to select 45 individuals, who were then randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group (n= 15 per group). This quasi-experimental research adopted a pretest-posttest control group design with follow-up. To collect data, the Love Trauma Inventory (LTI) and the Self-Compassion Scale–Short Form (SCS-SF) were used. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used for data analysis in SPSS 26. Results: Results indicated that ACT and schema therapy had significant effects on the love trauma syndrome and self-compassion in unmarried girls with emotional breakdowns (p<0.001). Moreover, schema therapy had more significant effects than ACT on the love trauma syndrome and self-compassion among the participants (p<0.001). The results also showed that the effectiveness of act and schema therapy on self-compassion and love trauma syndrome continued until the follow-up phase. Conclusions: It can be concluded that schema therapy is a more appropriate method for addressing the love trauma syndrome and self-compassion in unmarried girls with emotional breakdowns. Based on these results and considering the role of schema therapy, it is possible to help women with emotional breakdowns to enjoy self-compassion and reduce their love trauma syndrome by holding schema therapy sessions.