Comparing The Effectiveness Of Existential Group Therapy And Acceptance And Commitment Group Therapy On Feelings, Ambivalence Towards The Opposite Sex, And Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies In Single Students About To Get Married

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of existential group therapy and acceptance and commitment group therapy on feelings of loneliness, ambivalence towards the opposite sex, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies of single students about to get married. The method of the present study was semi-experimental and a pre-test-post-test-follow-up design with a control group was used. The statistical sample consisted of 60 students of Islamic Azad University, Elahiyeh Branch, Mashhad, who were selected through voluntary non-random sampling. The subjects were randomly divided into three groups of 20 people, Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, and a control group. First, all three groups were pre-tested using research tools. Then, existential group therapy training was conducted in 10 45-minute sessions (one session per week) adapted from the research of Asadi, Sairfi, and Ahadi (1401) for the first experimental group, and acceptance and commitment group therapy training was conducted in 8 45-minute sessions (one session per week) adapted from Kaderberg et al. (2016) for the second experimental group. The data collection tools were the Emotion Regulation Strategies Questionnaire (Izadpanah et al., 2017), the Ambivalence Scale of Attitudes Towards the Opposite Sex), which were completed by the subjects in the pre-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up stages. The research data were analyzed using univariate analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of variance. The results showed that both educational interventions were effective in improving emotion regulation strategies, ambivalence towards the opposite sex, in the experimental group at the end of treatment and after a one-month follow-up. It also means that there is a significant difference between the effectiveness of existential group therapy and acceptance and commitment group therapy on loneliness in single students about to get married. Comparison of means also showed that acceptance and commitment group therapy is more effective on loneliness. The results of this study provide appropriate empirical support for existential group therapy and acceptance and commitment group therapy interventions. It is suggested that family counselors and couple therapists use these two approaches to improve the quality of relationships and reduce marital burnout in couples.