Effectiveness of group counseling based on schema therapy approach in the attachment styles of married housewives

Abstract

Attachment theory regards human as social beings that possess the amazing capacity for communicating with others. What’s more, enjoying intimate and intense relationship and affective attachment with significant others like parents, spouse, children is amongst the most crucial human needs. Hence, the research purpose is to carry out an investigation into the effectiveness of group counseling employing schema therapy approach in the attachment styles of married housewives. The research employs a semi-experimental method with two groups (control and experimental group) with pre-test, posttest and follow-up (one month) design. The sample was selected through multi-stage sampling. The attachment questionnaire was administered on all the women in the health house and those who had developed insecure-anxious and insecure-avoidant styles were identified and attended the interview, out of which a sample of 24 individuals was selected and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. In the pre-test stage the Revised Adult Attachment Scale was administered on the subjects who underwent eight 90-minute sessions of group counseling based on the schema therapy approach. The control group didn’t receive any training. In the posttest stage the Revised Adult Attachment Scale was administered on both groups and one month later on the experimental group. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage and mean) and inferential statistics (covariance and t-test). Results confirmed the hypotheses of the research and indicated that group counseling based on the schema therapy approach was effective in the attachment styles of married housewives and changed their attachment styles into the secure one. The results proved to be relatively stable. With regard to the research results, it can be concluded that group counseling based on schema therapy can be used as an effective interventional method in altering the attachment styles specifically in married housewives.