ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Original Research

Authors

Hadyian   S. (1)
Dehghani   A. (*1)






(1) Clinical Psychology Department, Humanities Faculty, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Correspondence

Article History

Received:  November  6, 2019
Accepted:  May 15, 2019
ePublished:  July 21, 2019

BRIEF TEXT


Disability of a family member is one of the deleterious factors affecting the family structure.... [1].

… [2, 3]. The veterans’ children usually suffer from depression and conflict, anxiety disorders and aggression [5]. Studies have shown that girls with veteran father suffer from more psychological symptoms than veterans’ boys, and that their father's dysfunction causes more vulnerability in girls [6] .... [8]. ... [9-13]. Several studies on self-expression has shown that, by teaching mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, depression in affected patients is improved and in addition to improving depression, this training leads to an increase in their expression [14]. It has shown that teaching mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is found to increase their self-expression and reduce anxiety in anxious students [15, 16]. Mindfulness-based therapy has been effective in reducing shyness and enhancing self-expression of girls [17]. A study on the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on the sexual assertiveness of women with sexual dysfunction has shown that this treatment has increased female sexual assertiveness [18]. It has also been used to reduce depression and anxiety in various diseases [19-24]. Studies show that treating with mindfulness-based therapy developed a significant improvement in symptoms of anxiety and social skills [25].

The objective of the present study is to study the effectiveness of ACT on the assertiveness of imposed war veterans' daughters.

This is a semi-experimental research with pretest-posttest and a control group design.

This research was performed on veterans' daughters' population of Falavarjan town in 2017.

According to the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs of Falavarjan, there were 137 girls with the inclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria included at least diploma degree, age range of 20-30 years, veteran fathers with 25% to 50% injury, no psychological disorders and taking medication, no participation in a training program and willingness in participating in intervention sessions. Exclusion criterion was also considered the absence of more than two sessions in educational sessions. From the statistical population, 30 subjects who scored 100-140 of the questionnaire were selected through purposive sampling and were randomly divided into experimental (n = 15) and control (n = 15) groups; so that through lottery and alternatively one person was placed in the experimental group and one in the control group.

The Assertiveness Questionnaire was used as the research tool in the pre-test and post-test stages. The factor validity of the main items was reported between 0.39 and 0.70 and the reliability coefficient of this test was 0.81 [26]. In another study, Bonab and Hejazi Gibbs using Cronbach's alpha coefficient estimated the reliability of the questionnaire as 0.88 [27]. After visiting the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs of Falavarjan the coordination was made with officials and the permission was received and also the consent obtained from subjects and they were assured of the confidentiality of information. Intervention sessions for the experimental group were performed by the researcher for 8 consecutive weeks for 90 min and the experimental group received ACT [28]. After the intervention sessions, the Assertiveness Questionnaire was performed as a post-test for the experimental and control groups and the results of the two groups were compared again. For ethical considerations, after the end of the study, the intervention sessions were performed for the control group who tended to participate in the intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS 23 software. Univariate analysis of covariance was then used to evaluate the two groups in the post-test. In addition, Independent T-test was used to compare two groups in terms of demographic variables, including mean age, mean marital length and the injury percentage of veteran fathers. Chi-square test was used to compare the two groups in terms of educational level.

In terms of educational level, in the experimental group, 8 subjects (53.3%) had diploma and 7 subjects (46.7%) had Bachelor degree and were students, and in the control group, 6 subjects (40.0%) had diploma and 9 subjects (60.0%) had Bachelor degree and were students. There was no significant difference between two groups in demographic variables, including educational level, mean age, average marital length and percentage of injury in fathers (P> 0.05; Table 1).By adjusting pre-test scores, there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in the post-test and the mean scores in the experimental group were higher than the control group (Table 2).

Based on the literature review, no direct studies were found with the present study, but indirectly the results of the present study are in line with the results of the studies by Arab Qaeni et al. [15], Golpour Chamarkoohi and Mohammad Amini [16], Mehrinejad [17], Tabatabai et al. [18], Folk et al. [24], Dalrymple & Herbert [25] and Peterson & Eifert [29]. In explaining the findings of this study, it can be said that in ACT, it is believed that most of cases witch are called communication problems are in fact a thinking problem and each behavior is a consequence of a type of thinking. People with lower assertiveness usually have irrational thoughts about interpersonal communication. Teaching different methods of challenging irrational thoughts and choosing the right approach, which is called cognitive defusion in ACT have an impact on these aspects and also assertiveness of veterans’ daughters. In general, mindfulness is one of the key concepts of ACT that findings have shown that stress management can play a role in reducing psychological distress and promoting quality of life [30]. Acceptance of personal thoughts, emotions, and feelings are designed to facilitate a value-driven commitment process [31].

It is suggested that similar research be done in other statistical populations, as well as cultural advisors and planners for veterans and their families’ difficulties consider CAT.

One of the limitations of this study is that the study was conducted on the daughters of war veterans aged between 20-30 years and the percentage of their fathers’ injuries was between 25-50%.

ACT is effective on the assertiveness of imposed war veterans' daughters.

The authors are thankful to the officials of Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs of Falavarjan city as well as the daughters of veterans of the experimental and control group who contributed to this study.

None declared.

This research was approved by the Ethics Committee (IR.IAU.KHUISF.REC.1397.115).

This study was supported by the first author.

TABLES and CHARTS

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