Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in Couple Burnout, Alexithymia, and Quality of Life of Women Affected by Marital Infidelity

Abstract

Aim: This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in alexithymia, couple burnout, and quality of life of women affected by marital infidelity. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design with a control group and a one-month follow-up. The statistical population included women who were betrayed and referred to counseling centers in Mashhad, from which 20 women were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to experimental (n = 10) and control groups (n = 10). The study tools included the Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS) (1994), the couple burnout measure (CBM) of Pines (1996), and the MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) of Ware & Sherbourne (1993). The experimental group received the ACT intervention of Eifert et al. (2009) for twelve sessions. Data were analyzed by repeated-measures ANOVA. Results: The results showed that ACT affected alexithymia (F = 7.74, P = 0.012), couple burnout (F = 9.32, P = 0.007), and quality of life (F = 10.93, P = 0.004) of women affected by marital infidelity and that this effect was stable during the follow-up phase. Conclusion: The results indicate that this treatment can be used to help betrayed women who are seeking recovery due to its psychological flexibility and emphasis on motivational and cognitive aspects.