Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on Distress Tolerance, Flourishing, and Purpose in Life of Infertile Women

Abstract

Background: Infertile women not only face physical challenges but also experience a range of psychological problems throughout the diagnosis, treatment, and course of their disease. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the effects of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on distress tolerance, flourishing, and purpose in life of infertile women. Methods: An interventional design with a pre-test and post-test with a control group was utilized in this research. The population consisted of infertile women undergoing treatment at infertility clinics in Isfahan city from February 20, 2023, to July 30, 2023. A total of 36 infertile women were randomly selected by convenience sampling based on inclusion and exclusion criteria and assigned into two equal groups—control and interventional—using simple random sampling (n = 18). The instruments used in this study included the Distress Tolerance Questionnaire by Simmons and Gaher (2005), the Flourishing Questionnaire by Soleimani et al. (2015), and the Purpose in Life Questionnaire by Crumbaugh and Maholick (1964). The interventional group received 8 sessions of ACT, while no intervention was implemented for the control group. At the end of the last treatment session, the participants took a post-test, and the data were analyzed using SPSS software version 23 at two levels of descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The demographic findings of the sample group indicated that the average age in the interventional group was 29.94 years, and in the control group, it was 30.50 years. Results showed that the mean scores of distress tolerance, flourishing, and purpose in life in the interventional group improved in the post-test phase compared to the control group (P < 0.05). Based on the results of multivariate covariance analysis, there is a significant difference between the groups in terms of distress tolerance, flourishing, and purpose in life (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Acceptance and commitment therapy appears to be helpful in improving psychological problems associated with infertility in infertile women. Therefore, counselors and psychologists can use this method to support infertile women.