Effects of Schema Therapy on Anxiety, Cognitive Avoidance, and Resilience in Couples With Conflicts

Resilience, as a variable affecting couples’ relationships and resolving conflicts between them, plays an essential role in family psychology and family therapy.  

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test, a control group, and a 45-day follow-up design. The statistical population included all couples with low marital adjustment who were referred to the psychological counseling centers of Ahvaz City, Iran, in 2020. Thirty participants were selected using the convenience sampling method and randomly divided into the experimental and control groups (n=15 couples/group). The necessary data were collected using the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (CAQ), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). The schema therapy program was performed for the experimental group in eight 90-minute weekly sessions; however, the control group received no intervention. The follow-up phase was performed after 45 days. Repeated-Measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used in SPSS to analyze the obtained data.

Schema therapy effectively decreased anxiety and cognitive avoidance and increased resilience among couples in the experimental group (P<0.001). The Mean±SD post-test score of resilience was measured as 50.87±4.64 in the experimental group, which increased, compared to the post-test scores (43.33±5.71) in the control group.

Schema therapy decreased anxiety, cognitive avoidance, and significantly increased resilience in the examined couples. Schema therapy can be used to improve resilience in couples presenting marital conflicts.