NCT06082089

Divorce Adjustment Program for Women

A Structured and Empirically Validated Multidimensional Intervention Program to Improve Postdivorce Adjustment and Psychological Well-Being for Divorced Women

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 120 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Dokuz Eylul University · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study is the randomized controlled trial (RCT) part of a broader project aiming to develop and evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of a structured, culture-sensitive brief divorce adjustment program (DAP) for women. The present pilot RCT will be the first to test the potential effectiveness of the DAP to be delivered in an online group format in comparison to a wait-list control group. The feasibility of the program will be evaluated considering the percentages of attendance to the sessions, drop-out rates and qualitative assessments at the end of each session, as well as at the end of the program.

Detailed description

Considering the current pattern of rising divorce rates in all over the world, multi-dimensional, culturally-sensitive and well-structured interventions available for people in the post-divorce period has crucial importance in clinical practice. The divorce adjustment program (DAP) is such an group intervention that is designed in the previous stage of this study to improve the level of postdivorce adjustment and psychological well-being. The main purpose of this study is to test the potential effectiveness of the DAP to be delivered in an online group format for Turkish women who might undergo a more challenging adaptation process than that of men as indicated by the relevant literature. The DAP is a 5-module intervention for women without children and has an extra children-focused module, making the program 6 modules for women with children. Since the DAP has not been used and/or tested before, this study will be designed as a pilot RCT in which the program will be implemented in an online group format to Turkish divorced women reporting adjustment difficulties (as determined by having scores on the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale-Short Form \[FDAS-SF\] below the average that of reported in the Turkish adaptation study). The potential effectiveness of the DAP will be tested compared to a wait-list control group (with delayed intervention). On taking baseline assessments, eligible 60 participants with children and 60 participants without children will separately be randomized to either the experimental DAP group (n = 30 for women with children; n = 30 for women without children) or to the wait-list control group (n = 30 for women with children; n = 30 for women without children). If the time gap between baseline assessment and the first DAP session exceeds 1-week period, the pre-intervention assessments will be recurred. The effectiveness of the program will be evaluated by means of various measurements to be taken before the intervention, immediately after the completion of the program and at 1-month and 3-month follow-ups. All divorced women including drop-outs will be invited to outcome assessments. After completion of the follow-up assessment, the wait-list participants will be given opportunity to choose either participation to the DAP or receiving booklets including detailed information about the DAP content. The primary outcome measure will be divorce adjustment score and depression, anxiety, stress, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and ego strength measures will be the secondary outcomes. The feasibility of the program will be evaluated by assessing the percentages of attendance to the sessions, drop-out rates and qualitative assessments at the end of each session, as well as at the end of the program.

Conditions

• Divorced
• Adjustment Reaction

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Divorce Adjustment Program (DAP)	This is a brief group intervention program for divorced women. It consists of 6 sessions for participants with children and 5 sessions for participants without children. Each session lasts approximately 2.5-3 hours focusing on one of the difficulties experienced by women after divorce (i.e., self-perception, emotions and emotion regulation, social problems, family-related problems, problems with ex-spouse and children (for participants with children)). In this study, the DAP will be implemented in online format.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-11-01
• Primary completion: 2024-04-01
• Completion: 2024-09-01
• First posted: 2023-10-13
• Last updated: 2023-10-13