The Effects of Emotional Schema Therapy on Anger and Suicidal Ideation in Men with Extramarital Relations

 The family is the most significant element for progression and development in a society; however, this crucial institution can be endangered for various reasons and deviate from its primary function. Marital infidelity is among these reasons. Being unfaithful to your married partner has a significant and negative impact on the whole family. Therefore, psychologists constantly intend to reduce the following adverse effects that predominantly affect women since they are often the ones who are being cheated on. What makes women be more affected by the negative impacts is that although most men are engaged in extramarital affairs, they never accompany their wives to the consulting sessions. If their participation in the counseling process is achieved, we can improve and enhance marital life. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effects of Emotional Schema Therapy (EST) on anger and suicidal ideation in males engaged in extramarital affairs.

 This was a quasi–experimental study with a pretest–posttest and a control group design. The study population included all the spouses (in this study, only men are considered cheaters) being cheated on and consulted a psychologist in Tehran City, Iran, in 2020. Thirty subjects were randomly selected and placed in 2 groups. The inclusion criteria of the study were at least eighth–grade of education, no substance use disorders, consent to participate in the survey, involvement in extramarital relations in recent three months, and having been left at present, not having used psychological interventions, and having been married for at least 2 years. The exclusion criteria were not attending more than 2 intervention sessions, failure to perform assignments, and not volunteering to continue the therapeutic process. The State–Trait Anger Expression Inventory–2 (Spielberger, 1999) and Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (Beck & Steer, 1961) collected the required data at pretest and posttest stages. The experimental group participated in 9 ninety–minute EST sessions (Leahy, 2002). Moreover, descriptive statistics, including means and standard deviation and inferential statistics, including Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), were applied in SPSS at the significance level of 0.05 to analyze the obtained data.

 According to the ANCOVA data, EST reduced external anger reaction (p<0.001, Eta Squared=0.855), internal anger reaction (Eta Squared=0.936, p<0.001), external anger controlling (p<0.001, Eta Squared=0.985), external anger controlling (p<0.001, Eta Squared=0.989), and suicidal ideation (p<0.001, Eta Squared=0.949) in men involved in extramarital relations.

 EST reduces anger and suicidal ideation among men engaged in extramarital affairs; thus, applying this effective method is suggested to minimize the adverse effects of marital infidelity.