Comparison of the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy and dialectical behavior therapy on interpersonal forgiveness and distress tolerance in Female victims of domestic violence

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and dialectical behavior therapy on interpersonal forgiveness and distress tolerance in female victims of domestic violence. The research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with the control group. The statistical population of the study included all female victims of domestic violence who have been referred to Social emergency in Sari city in the winter of 2019 and spring of 2020.  Among them, 45 women were selected by purposive sampling and randomly replaced in a control group and two experimental groups (15 people in each group). The subjects of the first and second experimental groups received acceptance and commitment therapy (during 8 sessions) and dialectical behavior therapy (during 12 sessions), respectively. the control group did not receive any intervention. For data collection, the Interpersonal Forgiveness Inventory (Ehteshamzadeh, 2010) and Distress Tolerance Scale (Simons & Gaher, 2005) were used. Data were analyzed by analysis of covariance and LSD post hoc test. The results showed that acceptance and commitment therapy significantly increased interpersonal forgiveness (F=7.34, p=16.32) and distress tolerance (F=7.34, p=0.01). Also, dialectical behavior therapy significantly increased interpersonal forgiveness (F=11.78, p=0.002) and distress tolerance (F=9.8, p=0.012). The results also showed that acceptance and commitment therapy has a greater effect on interpersonal forgiveness (F = 9.9 and p <0.05)and distress tolerance (F = 9.8 and p <0.05) than dialectical behavior therapy. According to the results of the present study, acceptance and commitment-based therapy can be used to increase interpersonal forgiveness and distress tolerance more effectively than dialectical behavior therapy in women affected by domestic violence.