Investigating the problems of women with veteran spouses and Examining the effectiveness of Compassion-focused therapy on their psychological-marital problems

The objective of this study was to examine the efficacy of compassion-focused therapy in addressing the psychological and marital issues of women who have a veteran spouse. The research was conducted using an exploratory mixed-methodsapproach and encompassed both qualitative and quantitative phases. In 2020, the statistical population of the survey encompassed all women with veteran spouses residing in the 13th and 14th districts of Tehran. In the qualitative stage, purposive sampling was employed to select and interview 19 women with veteran spouses who were referred to the District 13 Municipal Health Center. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The identification of seven themes (anxiety, depression, fatigue and disability, irritability and aggression, loneliness, life dissatisfaction, and marital conflict) was the result of this analysis in the psychological-marital dimensions. Based on these components, a questionnaire was developed to assess the psychological and marital issues of women who have a veteran spouse. The data analysis in the experimental section was performed using the Bonferroni post hoc test and repeated measures analysis of variance in SPSS software version 22. The findings indicated that women who have spouses who are veterans encounter challenges in the areas of psychological, marital, physical, social, and economic well-being.Desirable psychometric properties were observed in the psychological-marital issues of women who completed a veteran spouse questionnaire. Also, compassion-focused therapy was effective in all psychological-marital aspects of the issues faced by women with a veteran spouse, resulting in a decrease in problematic behaviors. In the future, clinicians and researchers can investigate and mitigate the psychological-marital issues of women with a veteran spouse during counseling and psychotherapy sessions by implementing the combined study method, developing tools, and choosing the most suitable treatment.