ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Original Research

Authors

Pirani   Z. (*)
Abbasi   M. (1)
Kalvani   M. (1)
Nourbakhsh   P. (2)






(*) Psychology Department, Human Science Faculty, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran
(1) Psychology Department, Literature & Human Science Faculty, Salman Farsi University of Kazerun, Kazerun , Iran
(2) Psychology Department, Human Science Faculty, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Islamic Azad University, Amir Kabir University Town, Kilometer 3 of Khomein Road, Imam Khomeini Square, Arak, Iran
Phone: +98 (45) 32721517
Fax: +98 (721) 2229080
zabih_pirani@yahoo.com

Article History

Received:  October  27, 2016
Accepted:  December 12, 2016
ePublished:  March 10, 2017

BRIEF TEXT


… [1-2]. Half of the veterans cause tension in their family due to their disabilities [3].

… [4-34]. Carson et al. in a study demonstrated that mental focus interventions, acceptance, and cognitive failure significantly increase different dimensions of sexual responses and decrease sexual distress in women [35]. … [36-37].

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of treatment based on acceptance and commitment on sexual self-esteem, alexithymia, and adjustment of veterans’ spouses.

This study is applied, quasi-experimental, with pretest and posttest and a control group.

This study was conducted among all the veterans’ wives in Arak City in 2015.

Samples were selected based on purposive sampling and were randomly divided into two groups of control and experimental. The number of samples were considered 40 (20 in each group). Inclusion criteria were having the minimum education of primary school, and not having any history of psychiatric and psychological diseases and drug abuse, and the exclusion criteria were the death of the veteran, receiving other psychological interventions, having physical disability which prevents attendance in meeting, being absent for more than three sessions, and lack of the veteran`s wife ability to continue participating in the study. … [38].

To collect research data, 3 questionnaire were used: The Shortened Form of Women’s Sexual Self-Esteem index (SSEL-W-SF): This questionnaire has 35 items and it has been developed for measuring effective responses in assessing women’s self-evaluation of their own sex. The questions are answered in the six-point Likert Scale from one to 6 (totally disagree to totally agree). This questionnaire reflects the area of sexual self-esteem including experience and skill, charm, control, moral judgment and compliance. By collecting scores in five areas together, the total score is obtained and a higher score indicates a higher sexual self-esteem. Cronbach’s alpha for the total score, experience, charm, control, moral judgment and adjustment has been reported 0.92, 0.86, 0.88, 0.80, 0.80 and 0.80 respectively [39]. Locke-Wallace Questionnaire of Marital Adjustment: This questionnaire is based on the perception of interpersonal relationships and marriage in form of 15 questions regarding the activities involved in marital adjustment. In this test, a score of 100 and higher indicates marital satisfaction and the score less than 100 indicates the tension in marital relations. Internal consistency using Spearman-Brown formula has been very good and the correlation coefficient between the two halves is equal to 0.90. This test is a scale for predicting the future. This test was edited and translated into the Persian by Mazaheri. In another study, the obtained reliability using two methods of Cronbach alpha and split-half were 0.71 and 0.92 for the whole questionnaire that to determine the validity of the questionnaire, Amanollahi Marital Satisfaction Index was used that the validity between these two questionnaires is equal to 0.66 [30]. Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20): Toronto Alexithymia Scale was developed in 1994 by Begby et al. This scale is a 20-queston test which measures three subscales of the difficulty in identifying feelings, difficulty in describing feelings, and externally-oriented thinking in five-point Likert scale of one (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The total score is the sum of the scores of three subscales for alexithymia. In the Persian version of Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, Cronbach’s alpha for the total alexithymia and three subscales of the difficulty in identifying feelings, difficulty in describing feelings, and externally-oriented thinking were calculated 0.85, 0.75, 0.72, and 0.75 respectively that it is a sign of good internal consistency of the scale. Test-retest reliability of the scale and its free subscales on two occasions with an interval of four weeks has been in the range of 0.80 to 0.87. The results of correlation between alexithymia and emotional intelligence scale (-0.80), psychological well-being (-0.78), and psychological distress (0.44) represent the concurrent validity of this scale [40]. Educational program for acceptance and commitment was held in ten ninety-minute sessions once a week for the experimental group [33, 41, and 42] (Table 1). The control group did not receive any intervention, and pretest and posttest were administrated in both groups. For the analysis of data on the descriptive level, mean and standard deviation, and for the analysis of data in inferential level, Univariate Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were used. Before using parametric univariate analysis of covariance, the kolmogorov-smirnov test was used to check the normality of data and Levene test was used to compliance with its assumptions. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23 software.

Most women were in the age range of 40-45 years old and their level of education was mostly primary school (Table 2). After intervention, the mean score of the experimental group increased in the domains of sexual self-confidence and marital adjustment and decreased in alexithymia compared to the control group. This means that after adjusting for pretest, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy had significant effect on the alexithymia, sexual self-confidence, and marital adjustment of wives of veterans (p<0.001; Table 3). The impact factor of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on alexithymia was 0.75, 0.84, and 0.88 for alexithymia, sexual self-esteem and marital adjustment respectively.

According to the mean scores of the groups in the pretest and posttest, acceptance and commitment therapy can reduce the alexithymia in the veteran’ wives. This finding is consistent with the results of studies conducted by Honarparvaran [34], Abbasi et al. [29], Narimani and Bakhshayesh [32], Rajabi et al. [43] and Li et al [37] that acceptance and commitment therapy is effective on the emotional problems of the spouses.

It is recommended that free educational facilities and workshops be provided for these couples to increase their knowledge and to learn effective strategies for controlling emotions and negative feelings; so that their marital life quality, adjustment, and intimacy will be increased in them.

Of the limitations of this study, available sampling, use of self-reported tool, and difficulty to access to the spouses of veterans with the same type and amount of injury (since severity and type of injury, of course, affects the quantity and quality of the veteran’s work in different domains of life such as emotional control or sexual performance) can be mentioned.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is effective in increasing sexual self-confidence and marital adjustment as well as in decreasing alexithymia in veterans’ wives.

The authorities of the Arak Martyr and Veterans’ Affairs Foundation who have sincerely help us in conducting this study are really appreciated.

Non-declared

This study was conducted after investigation in the Arak ethical committee of the Martyr and Veterans’ Affairs Foundation to minimize the losses and to maximize the benefits for the participants in the study.

Non-declared

TABLES and CHARTS

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