The effectiveness of cognitive processing therapy on the improvement of posttraumatic symptoms, quality of life, self esteem and marital satisfaction in the women exposed to infidelity

Infidelity is an interpersonal traumatic event that can results in cognitive, affective and behavioral symptoms in the victims. In the attention to this issue, the current study was conducted in the order to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive processing therapy on the improvement of posttraumatic symptoms, quality of life, self esteem and marital satisfaction in the women exposed to infidelity. The design of this study was quasi-experimental. Fourteen women, had been selected by the opportunity sampling, responded to the questionnaires of posttraumatic stress disorder, quality of life, self esteem and marital satisfaction in the pre test stage. Then they received cognitive processing therapy. Ultimately these subjects responded to aforesaid questionnaires at post test and follow up stage again. The collected data were analyzed by ANOVA for repeated measures. The results showed that the mean difference of subject's scores at pre test, post test and follow up stage in the variables of posttraumatic symptoms, quality of life and self esteem are significant statistically. The results of Post hog test also showed that this significant difference was between pretest with posttest and follow up stage. But the mean of marital satisfaction scores were not significantly altered at these three stages. The results of this research pose the need to application of the one trauma focused psychotherapy such as cognitive processing therapy in the working with women exposed to infidelity.