The Effectiveness of the Strength-Based Approach on Psychological Hardiness and Loneliness of Divorced Women

Abstract

Divorce is considered one of the most stressful events in people's lives, and along with many pleasant and unpleasant factors in women's lives, divorce is considered an important and terrible event in their lives, which has many personal and social consequences in their lives. Based on this, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of the strength-based approach on psychological hardiness and feelings of loneliness among divorced women. In terms of purpose, the current research was of an applied type, and in terms of method, based on the research design and method, it was semi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design (with an experimental group and a control group and a three-month follow-up period). In the present study, the statistical population studied included all divorced women who referred to counseling centers in the 10th district of Tehran in the first half of 2011; Among these people, 40 people were selected and randomly assigned to an experimental group (20 people) and a control group (20 people). Then, the strength-based approach based on the protocol prepared by Darbani & Parsakia (2022) was implemented on the test group. In order to collect data, research tools included Russel et al (1998) loneliness questionnaire and Lang et al (2003) psychological hardiness questionnaire. In the descriptive part, frequency distribution tables were used, and in the inferential part of data analysis, mixed variance analysis with repeated measurements and LSD post hoc test and SPSS software version 26 were used. The F value and the significance level of the obtained value were calculated in the variable of psychological hardiness (F = 8.22 and P = 0.001) and loneliness (F = 6.40 and P = 0.002). Therefore, the independent variable i.e. the strength-based approach has significantly changed the dependent variables i.e. the feeling of loneliness and psychological hardiness. Therefore, it can be concluded that the changes made in the dependent variables were caused by the implementation of the strength-based approach on the experimental group. The results of the LSD post hoc test showed that the effects of the strength-based approach on the research variables were stable. Based on the available findings, it can be concluded that the strength-based approach is effective on the feeling of loneliness and psychological hardiness of divorced women, so it is suggested that experts use the techniques of this approach in their work.