Effect of Spiritual-Religious Interventions on Anxiety, Depression, and Adjustment to Parental Divorce in Female High School Students

Background and Objectives: Parental divorce can cause distress for the children of a family and they may not be able to easily adjust themselves to it. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the factors that can improve their distress and facilitate the process of their adjustment. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of spiritual-religious interventions on: anxiety, depression, and adjustment to parental divorce in female high school students. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted based on a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The population consisted of all female high school students whose parents had divorced in Malayer, Iran, in 2019. In total, 28 female high school students were selected through convenience sampling method and were divided randomly into intervention and control groups. Furthermore, the intervention group was subjected to spiritual-religious interventions. The data were collected using the child behavior checklist and divorce adjustment inventory revised. In addition, the data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 22) through multivariate analysis of covariance. Results: The results showed that spiritual-religious interventions had significant effects on the results of post-test anxiety (F=24.22 and P<0.05), depression (F=4.50 and P<0.05) and adjustment to parental divorce (F=6.75 and P<0.05). Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, spiritual-religious interventions can improve anxiety, depression, and facilitate the process of adjustment to parental divorce in female high school students. The results of this research can have many practical implications.