The Effectiveness of Emotion-focused Cognitive Therapy in Decreasing Depression due to Marital Relationship Problems

Seyedeh Fatemeh Hashemi,Seyed Ali Kimiaei

doi:10.13189/ujp.2017.050405

Seyedeh Fatemeh Hashemi, Seyed Ali Kimiaei

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.13189/ujp.2017.050405

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Abstract

Marital distress and marital relationship problems are effective in generation and acceleration of depression. Depression is a significant contributor to the global burden of disease and affects people in all communities across the world. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of emotion-focused cognitive therapy in decreasing depression caused due to marital relationship problems. The design of this study was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and control group. The research population consisted of all couples referred to the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Clinic of Psychology. 10 couples with marital problems were selected by convenience sampling, and randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group received emotion-focused cognitive therapy while the control group received no treatment. The research measurement instruments consisted of BDI-II and CPQ. ANCOVA models were used to test the study hypothesis. The results showed that EFCT had been effective in decreasing depression due to marital relationship problems (P < 0.001). The results of our study not only demonstrated that the importance of cognition and emotion in marital relationship but also product useful information about effectiveness of EFCT on depression caused due to marital relationship problems for researchers, counselors and psychotherapists.

Highlights

Couples in their marital life communicate with each other through many different ways
The mean and standard deviation of pre-test and post-test scores of communication patterns questionnaire (CPQ) and BDI-II in the experimental and the control groups are presented in table 2
The authors examined the efficacy of an Emotion-focused Cognitive Therapy (ECBT) for six anxious youths

Summary

Introduction

Couples in their marital life communicate with each other through many different ways. Those communications ways, which are often taken in a family, called communication patterns [1].Most couples with marital conflict do have problems in communication with each other. These couples are mostly engaged in ineffective communication patterns [2]. Gottman and Notarius [3] believed that one of the factors influencing marital satisfaction is communication patterns. The quality of couple’s communication has been found to be one of the best predictors of relationship satisfaction [5]

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