Comparing the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Based on Stress Management and the Quality-of-Life Therapy on Metacognitive Beliefs and Aggression of Divorced Couples Referred to Welfare Organization in Ilam City, Iran

Divorce is one of the most important social harms at the individual, interpersonal, and social levels. One of the important psychological functions is metacognitive beliefs. Aggression is also one of the most important causes of requests for separation from couples. A cognitive–behavioral therapy program based on stress management is organized to pay attention to issues such as lack of personal control, confrontational demands, social isolation, and anxiety and depression, all of which are prominent in couples applying for divorce. Although the usefulness of traditional cognitive–behavioral therapy has been confirmed in research, following criticisms of this approach, other combined methods have been presented to treat individual and interpersonal problems. One of these integrated methods is psychotherapy based on the quality of life, which belongs to the positive psychology class. The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of cognitive–behavioral therapy based on stress management and quality–of–life therapy on metacognitive beliefs and aggression of referred couples seeking divorce in the welfare organization of Ilam City, Iran.

This quasi–experimental study employed a pretest–posttest and follow–up (three months) design with a control group. The study's statistical population included all couples seeking a divorce in Ilam City, from which 45 people were selected using the available sampling method. Of these 45 couples, 15 were randomly assigned to the quality–of–life therapy group, 15 to cognitive–behavioral therapy based on stress management, and 15 to the control group. The control group received no intervention. The inclusion criteria for the couples were as follows: age 20–48 years, literacy in reading and writing, and a history of living together between 2 and 15 years. The exclusion criteria were not participating in more than two treatment sessions, unwillingness to continue participating in the research, and concurrent use of psychiatric drugs during the research. Cognitive–behavioral therapy based on stress management was implemented in a group setting during ten sessions for one experimental group, and quality–of–life therapy was implemented in a group setting during eight sessions for the other experimental group. The cognitive therapy based on stress management was conducted based on the practical guide of cognitive behavioral therapy of stress management by Antoni et al. (2007). Quality of life therapy sessions were implemented based on Frisch's quality–of–life therapy (2006). The tools used in this research included the Metacognitive Beliefs Questionnaire (Wells and Cartwright–Houghton, 2004) and the Aggression Questionnaire (Bass and Perry, 1992).

The results showed that the effect of time on both variables of metacognitive beliefs (p<0.001) and aggression (p<0.001) and the impact of the group on both variables of metacognitive beliefs (p=0.012) and aggression (p=0.016) were significant. Regarding the variables of metacognitive beliefs and aggression in both groups of cognitive–behavioral therapy based on stress management and quality–of–life therapy, the difference between the average scores of the pretest with posttest and follow–up was significant (p<0.001). Also, in both research variables, the difference between the average posttest and follow–up scores in the two experimental groups was not significant, which shows the stability of the treatment effects over time (p>0.05).

According to the findings, both treatment methods are effective, but cognitive behavioral therapy based on stress management is better than quality–of–life therapy. Therefore, in dealing with the problems of people applying for divorce, cognitive behavioral therapy based on stress management is more effective compared to quality–of–life therapy.