The Effectiveness of Schema Therapy on General Health, Ruminating and Social Loneliness of Divorce Women

  The divorce process has many psychological and social consequences for individuals, which it often takes a long time after divorce to get the person out of turmoil and sometimes requires interventional methods to speed up the process of returning to normal life, confront incompatible and ineffective thoughts and social isolation, and maintain the overall health. So the purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of schema therapy on general health, rumination, and loneliness of divorced women.

The research method was a quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with control group. The statistical population consisted of all divorced women referring to counseling centers in Sari city, in 2017. The sample consisted of 20 persons in each experimental and control group (40 samples in total), which were selected randomly. Also, the criteria for entry of the sample groups into the research were: divorced with no child, aged 20-40 years old, resident of Sari city, no obvious physical illness based on physician examinations and routine tests requested, no obvious psychotic and mood disorders in individuals based on clinical interviews by the psychiatrist, based on the criteria of the fifth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In this research, three questionnaires, the SELSA-S Loneliness Scale, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Nullen Hoeksma and Marrow Rumination Questionnaire (RRS), and Schema Therapy Protocol were used. Questionnaires were provided to them after explaining the purpose of the research and obtaining informed consent from the participants and assuring them of confidentiality of the information. In general, no one was excluded from the study in the two groups. Also, a multivariate covariance analysis (MANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses.

The results of this study, using multivariate analysis of covariance,
showed that schema therapy significantly improved the health and decreased rumination and loneliness of divorced women. Specifically, schema therapy can reduce loneliness, increase general health and decrease ruminating of divorced women.

The findings show that schema therapy causes changes in the cognitive, experimental, emotional, and behavioral fields. This approach has been effective in challenging maladaptive schemas and ineffective responses and replacing them with better and more responsive thoughts and responses. It is recommended that advisers and therapists’ use the schema therapy rules to rehabilitate women after divorce, in order to increase their general health and reduce rumination and facilitate social relationships.