The effectiveness of Bowen family therapy on psychological well-being, differentiation, and life expectancy of children of divorced families

Abstract

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Bowen family therapy education on psychological well-being, differentiation, and life expectancy of children of divorced families. Method: The research design was quasi-experimental and was a pre-test and post-test design with a control group and one-month follow-up. The statistical population of the study was the children of families subject to welfare divorce in Tabriz in 1397, of which 12 families were purposefully in a group and 12 families who are not subject to divorce were in the control group. Both groups were tested by Reef (1982), Scuron (1998), and Schneider (1991) Psychological Well-Being Questionnaires, and then Kerr and Bowen (1988) presented an eight-session family therapy training protocol for the experimental group. The control group did not receive any training. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results: The results showed that Bowen family therapy improved psychological well-being (F = 5.17, P = 0.033), differentiation (F = 5.58, P = 0.028) and life expectancy (F = 16.68). P = 0.001) was performed in the experimental group and these results were stable at the follow-up stage. Conclusion: Based on the present findings, it can be concluded that Bowen family therapy was an effective treatment to improve psychological well-being, differentiation, and life expectancy in divorced families; Therefore, it is recommended that psychological interventions be performed for children during the divorce process.