Effectiveness of Solution- Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) on Couple Burnout and Divorce Tendency in Married Women

Couple burnout is one of the problems that is a main reason for emotional divorce because of its adverse and destructive effects on marital system and creating psycho-emotional distance in a couple, and this problem, if untreated, will prepare the grounds for formal divorce. The solution-focused brief therapy is a postmodern approach in couple therapy and family therapy which focuses on finding solutions by the client in cooperation with the therapist. In this study we investigated the effectiveness of solution-focused brief therapy in couple burnout and divorce tendency among married women. This research is a quasi-experimental study and pretest-posttest with control group design is used. The population consists of all married women with marital conflicts and problems who have visited Golha House of health, located in the 6th district of Tehran city in the second half of 2013. In this study, the sampling method was available sampling. Thus, 30 women who were qualified to participate in meetings and had earned the highest scores in the survey questionnaire were selected, and they were placed in experimental and control groups through random assignment (each n=15). The data gathering tools in this study were pains couple burnout measure (CBM) and the Divorce Tendency Scale of Roswelt, Jonson &, Moro (DTS) 1986, which were completed by the subjects in the pretest. The intervention group was exposed to solution-focused brief therapy for seven two-hour sessions in groups, in a step-by-step manner with the sequence of one session per week. But no intervention was performed in the control group. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics methods and through multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) in software SPSS20. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed a significant reduction in couple burnout and divorce tendency (P= 0.000) of married women after performing solution-focused brief therapy. The mean and standard devietion of couple burnout and divorce tendency of interference group in pretest respectively was 113/6 ± 20/04 and 126/53 ±31/12 and in post test stage was 94/6 ±21/69 and 102/26 ±22/15. In control group also mean and standard devietion of couple burnout and divorce tendency before interference respectively was108/53± 16/68 and 106/46 ± 27/21 and after interference was 106/93±28/16. According to the findings of this research, it can be concluded that solution-focused brief therapy has been able to be effective in reducing couple burnout and divorce tendency among married women. Counselors and family therapists can use this short-term, efficient and effective therapy approach to solve marital conflicts and help people to improve their marital relationships.