The Effect of Schema Therapy on Sexual Self-Esteem in the Women Involved in Marital Conflicts

Marital conflicts bring about issues in marital relationships and increase the divorce rate. Sexual skill training can prevent some of the marital conflicts and sexual problems in women. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of schema therapy on sexual self-esteem in the women involved in marital conflicts in Ahvaz.

The study design was quasi-experimental. The study population comprised all women with marital conflicts who referred to the psychological centers of Ahvaz in 2019; using convenience sampling, we selected 30 women willing to participate in the project and randomly divided them into experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The research instrument included Marital Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ) and Sexual Self-Esteem Index for Woman-Short Form (SSEI-W-SF). The experimental group underwent eight sessions (90-minute sessions per week) of schema therapy. The follow-up was performed after 30 days. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 24.

In terms of sexual self-esteem, there was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in the pre-test stage. Schema therapy effectively increased sexual self-esteem in women involved in marital conflicts in the experimental group (P<0.001). The mean pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group were 106.26±8.05 and 128.76±6.77, respectively, which increased compared to the pre-test (107.13±6.71) and post-test (108.46±8.97) of the control group.

Schema therapy can be employed to improve self-esteem in women involved in marital conflicts. In this way, the conflicts among couples and other family members can be reduced.