The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Loneliness and Hope among Women Heading Households

This study aimed to investigate the the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on loneliness and hope among women heading households.

This study was a quasi-experimental pretest - posttest with control group. The study population was consisted of all women heading households in Tehran in 2020 that reffering to Welfare Organization of Tehran. The sample consisted of 30 (15 for each group) women heading households that were selected by as an availably and randomly recruits to each of groups. Then, the participants in the experimental group participated in 8 sessions of 90 min of acceptance and commitment therapy. Instruments for gathering data were Snyder’s hope questionnaire (1991) and social and emotional loneliness scale (2004). Then, the data were analyzed using SPSS.v21 software and statistical tests such as MANCOVA.

The results indicate that acceptance and commitment therapy had significant impact on loneliness (p < 0.05) and hope (p < 0.05) among women heading households and their subscales.

So, it seems that this intervention is an applicable treatment for improving psychological health for women heading households.