Investigating the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy on marital boredom in women with marital conflict

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. student of counseling, Department of Psychology, Qeshm Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qeshm, Iran.

2 Associate professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran.

3 Assistant professor, Department of Psychology, Qeshm Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qeshm, Iran.

10.22038/JFMH.2025.82296.3162

Abstract

Introduction: This study investigated the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in reducing marital boredom and improving marital satisfaction in women with marital conflicts.
 
Materials and Methods: The statistical population included all the married women with marital conflicts referred to the counseling centers in Shiraz-Iran in 2023. Sixty participants were selected through convenient sampling and randomly assigned to experimental group and control group. The Couple Burnout Measurement (Pines, 1996) was used to assess marital boredom. The cognitive-behavior therapy of Gehart's (2012) intervention was delivered to experimental group in eight 60-minute weekly sessions. Data were analyzed using repeated measures to analyze variance.
 
Results: The results indicated a significant difference in the post-test and follow-up stages between the control group and CBT group (P< 0.001), indicating the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy in improving marital boredom. The effectiveness of CBT therapy in improving marital burnout was 59.6% in the post-test and 69.2% in the follow-up stage, respectively. The results also showed a significant difference between the two groups in the post-test and follow-up stages, with differences of 26.3% and 37.1%, respectively, suggesting the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy.
 
Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that cognitive behavioral therapy can improve marital burnout among women. Family therapists can use these educational and therapeutic approaches to improve marital relationships in conflicted couples.

Keywords


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