Effectiveness of self-compassion on distress tolerance, emotion regulation and anxiety sensitivity in divorced women

The present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of self-compassion treatment on distress tolerance, emotion regulation and anxiety sensitivity in divorced women. It was a quasi-experimental study with pretest, posttest and control group design. The statistical population of the present study all divorced women referring to consultation centers in the city of Tehran in 2017. Non-probable voluntary sampling method and random replacement were used in the present study in a way that 30 people were voluntarily selected and replaced into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received eight ninety-minute sessions during two months while the control group didn’t receive this intervention during conducting the study. The applied questionnaires in the study included emotion cognitive regulation strategies (Garenfski et.al, 2002), emotional distress tolerance scale (Simons and Gaher, 2005) and anxiety sensitivity questionnaire (Floyd, Garfield and Marks, 2005). The data from the study were analyzed through Ancova method via SPSS23 software. The results of data analysis showed that self-compassion treatment has been effective on distress tolerance (f=28/87, p<0/0001), positive emotion regulation (f=41/47, p<0/0001), negative emotion regulation (f=52/79, p<0/0001) and anxiety sensitivity (f=58/28, p<0/0001) in divorced women. According to the findings of the present study, self-compassion treatment can be suggested as an efficient method in order to increase distress tolerance and emotion regulation and decrease anxiety sensitivity in divorced women.