Comparison of the Effectiveness of Schema Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and Compassion-Focused Therapy on Components of Loving, Emotional Empathy, Marital Values, Coping Skills, and Willingness to Marry Among Single Women with Fear of Marriage

Abstract

Objective: The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of schema therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and compassion-focused therapy on components of loving, emotional empathy, marital values, coping skills, and willingness to marry among single women with a fear of marriage.

Methods and Materials: This experimental study used a pretest-posttest-follow-up design with four groups (three experimental groups and one control group). The statistical population included all girls with pre-marital fears in the city of Semirom. From this population, 60 participants were selected using convenience sampling based on inclusion and exclusion criteria and were assigned to four non-randomized groups. The control group was placed on a waiting list, while the three experimental groups received schema therapy-based interventions (Fadavi Nia & Khayyatan, 2021), cognitive-behavioral therapy (Mohammadpour et al., 2015), and compassion-focused therapy (Pirjavid et al., 2021) over eight 90-minute sessions. All participants responded to the Coping Skills Questionnaire (Billings & Moos, 1981) in three phases. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics.

Findings: The results showed that all three methods effectively improved the two dimensions of avoidance-oriented and problem-focused coping.

Conclusion: Based on these results, it can be concluded that these three methods are suitable for improving psychological constructs, with schema therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy being more effective in enhancing the dimensions of coping mechanisms. Counselors and psychotherapists can use the techniques and strategies from these methods to improve these dimensions.