The effectiveness of realistic acceptance and commitment therapy (RACT) on marital burnout and alexithymia in couples

The consequence of the lack of expressing emotions is the intensification of unpleasant thoughts and negative arousal in people, and this is known as one of the most important factors of marital conflicts. These self-inflicted negative thoughts ultimately strengthen the cycle of increasing dissatisfaction with marriage, the feeling of marital exhaustion and boredom; So, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of RACT on marital burnout and alexithymia in couples.

The purpose of the current research was applied, and the way it was conducted was quasi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design with an experimental group and a control group and a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population of the research included all the couples referring to private counseling centers in the 5th district of Tehran in 2021. 30 couples were selected using the available sampling method and randomly assigned to an experimental group (15 couples) and a control group (15 couples). On the experimental group, a group intervention based on RACT was conducted based on the package compiled by Afshari et al. (2022). The research tools included Pines Marital Depression Questionnaire (1996) and Toronto Alexithymia (TAS-20). SPSS-26 software and mixed variance analysis with three-stage repeated measures were used for statistical analysis of data.

Based on the findings, there was a significant difference between the scores of marital burnout and alexithymia of the experimental and control groups in the pre-test, post-test and follow-up stages. The results of the analysis of the findings indicate that the RACT had a significant effect on the marital burnout and alexithymia of the experimental group. The effectiveness RACT was stable in the follow-up phase according to the Bonferroni post-hoc test.

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that RACT can be used in family counseling and couple therapy centers to reduce marital burnout and Alexithymia of couples.