Comparison of the Effectiveness of Group Therapy for Enriching Marital Relationships and Forgiveness on Interpersonal Motivations Related to the Mistakes of Women Involved in Emotional Divorce in Isfahan, Iran

Emotional divorce is an unpleasant event in married life that involves emotional, cognitive, behavioral, social, and even economic changes. In this regard, the use of new therapeutic approaches to improve and repair emotional divorce is increasing. The present study aims to compare the effectiveness of group therapy of enriching marital relationships and forgiveness on interpersonal motivations related to the wrongdoing of women involved in emotional divorce.

The method of the present study was experimental with pre-test, post-test design and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all women with emotional divorce who were referred to clinics affiliated to Isfahan Welfare Organization to receive family counseling services in 2020-2021. Using purposive sampling method, 60 women were selected and randomly divided into three groups of first experiment (n = 20), second experiment (n = 20), and control (n = 20). The experimental groups received the marital relationship enrichment intervention in seven sessions and forgiveness intervention in nine sessions over two months. Guttman Emotional Divorce Questionnaire and McCullough et al. Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations (TRIM) scale were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Training in enrichment of marital relationships and forgiveness was effective on revenge and avoidance of women involved in emotional divorce. Moreover, a significant difference was found between the two educational interventions in the post-test and follow-up stages, so that the relationship enrichment treatment was more effective on the avoidance component and the forgiveness intervention was more effective on the revenge component.

Based on the results of this study, the interventions can be used as an effective solution to improve the psychological performance of couples with emotional divorce in family counseling centers, specialized clinics, and premarital educational centers.