A study of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction's Effectiveness on Marital Satisfaction in Women

Abstract

Background: Marital satisfaction has been defined as an individual’s attitudes toward their spouse, and the spouses’ relations. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy makes possible the relation among temper, thoughts and feelings at “the present moment”. By changing and practicing on thinking, we hope through this method that spouses’ relations will improve, and the factors leading to conflicts will be prevented. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on marital satisfaction.

Methods: This research is a type of semi-experiment, pre-test and post-test with a control group. The statistical society includes all women involved in marital conflict who were referred to the psychological consulting clinics in Kerman. The statistical sample consisted of 30 women in the experiment group and the control group. For collecting information, the ENRICH questionnaire on marital satisfaction was used. Covariance analysis was used to compare the subjects' scores in both groups.

Results: Teaching mindfulness in the level P<0.05 led to increased total marital satisfaction and contentment, relations and conflict resolution, and a decreased women idealistic distortion component.

Conclusions: Mindfulness conducts the individuals to attain increasing awareness, and changes their relations with thoughts and feelings. Spouses can experience more marital satisfaction through mastering these skills to find solutions to the problems.