Comparative Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy on Sexual Intimacy and Marital Silence in Women with Marital Burnout
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Objective: This study compared the effectiveness of ACT and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy in improving sexual intimacy and reducing marital silence among women experiencing marital burnout.
Methods: In a quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up, 45 married women meeting criteria for marital burnout were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to three groups: ACT (n = 15), short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (n = 15), and a wait-list control group (n = 15). The intervention groups received eight weekly 90-minute sessions based on standard ACT and short-term psychodynamic protocols. All participants completed validated measures of sexual intimacy and marital silence at pre-test, post-test, and eight-week follow-up. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and ANCOVA, controlling for baseline scores.
Results: Both ACT and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy produced significant improvements in sexual intimacy and reductions in marital silence compared with the control group at post-test (p < .01). These gains were largely maintained at follow-up. Between the two active treatments, ACT showed slightly greater effects on reducing marital silence, whereas improvements in sexual intimacy were comparable across approaches. Effect sizes for both interventions were in the moderate-to-large range.
Conclusions: ACT and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy are both effective for enhancing sexual intimacy and reducing marital silence in women with marital burnout, with ACT showing a relative advantage for breaking maladaptive patterns of silence. Integrating these approaches into couple-focused services may improve relational outcomes for distressed women.
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