The effect of schema therapy and schema-focused mindfulness therapy on marital communication of Iranian women in Malaysia

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of schema therapy and schema-focused mindfulness therapy on marital communication among Iranian married women who lived in Malaysia from 2015 to 2016. The qualified participants were assigned randomly into three groups, i.e. two experimental groups which in order received schema therapy and schema-focused mindfulness therapy, and a control group which did not receive any treatment. The treatment sessions lasted nearly three months using marital satisfaction subscale from the ENRICH questionnaire, a demographic questionnaire and Young's schema questionnaire as the instruments. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA and ANCOVA were also employed for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that schema therapy and schema-focused mindfulness therapy had a significant effect on marital communication of Iranian women in Malaysia. Moreover, the findings showed more improvement for schema-focused mindfulness therapy group at two months follow-up.