Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Training on Self-Esteem and Anxiety of Female Students Affected by Divorce

Subject Areas : Adolescent health

lila Mamhori ¹ , Parviz Sharifidaramadi ^{2 *} , Mohammad Asgari ³

1 - PhD student in Counseling, Psychology Department, Qom Azad University – Qom Branch
2 - - (Corresponding Author), Full Professor of Psychology, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran, [e-mail]
3 - Associate Professor, Department of Measurement and Measurement, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran [e-mail]

Received: 2025-04-15 Accepted : 2025-05-13 Published : 2025-05-16

Keywords: Anxiety, Cognitive Behavioral Training, Self-esteem,

Abstract :

Introduction: Divorce, as a social issue that includes legal dissolution, is of great importance in terms of its widespread effects on population growth and changes in family structure. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral training on self-esteem and anxiety of female students affected by divorce.

Research Method: A quasi-experimental research method with a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design with a control group and a statistical population including female students studying in junior high schools in Kalaleh affected by divorce, who were selected through purposive sampling and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups (16 in the experimental group and 17 in the control group), which were finally reduced to groups of 15. A researcher-made cognitive-behavioral training package was implemented for the experimental group in 12 90-minute sessions. Data collection tools included Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Questionnaire (1965) and Beck et al.'s Anxiety Questionnaire (1988). Data analysis was performed using repeated measures analysis of covariance with a significance level of p < 0.05.

© 2020 The Author(s). This work is published by family and health as an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted, provided the original work is properly cited.

Findings: The results showed that the main effect of time and the interaction effect of time and group were statistically significant in the variables of self-esteem and anxiety. Based on the effect size, 42% of the scores in the self-esteem variable and 44% of the scores in anxiety were due to the effectiveness of the cognitive behavioral training package on the experimental group (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it can be said that cognitive behavioral therapy leads to increased self-esteem and decreased anxiety levels.

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