The Effectiveness of Schema Therapy on Eating Disorder and Rumination of Obese Adolescent Girls

Obesity as one of the major problems in developing societies is associated with eating disorder and rumination. One way to reduce psychological problems among obese people is to use schema therapy. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of schema therapy on eating and rumination disorders among obese adolescent girls in Ahvaz. The present study employed a quasi-experimental method with a pre-test and post-test design with the control group. The research population included high school obese adolescent female students in Ahvaz in the qcdemic year 2018-2019. The research sample consisted of 50 students who were selected using availablilty sampling technique and were randomly placed into two equal groups. The members of the experimental group participated in 10 schema therapysessions, each lasting 70 minutes, while the control group didn’t receive any treatment. The data were collected by administering eating disorder and rumination disorder questionnaires and analyzed by the paired and independent samples t-tests and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). The results showed that there was no significant difference between the participants in the experimental and control groups in terms of eating disorder and rumination in the pre-intervention phase. However, the two groups showed significant differences in terms of both variables upon the completion of the intervention. In other words, schema therapy led to a significant decrease in the eating disorder (F=73.246, p<0.001) and rumination (F=81.116, p<0.001) of obese adolescent girls. Based on the results, counselors and therapists are recommended to use schema therapy along with other treatment techniques to reduce eating disorder and rumination of obese adolescent girls.