Divorce Adjustment Program for Women

Dokuz Eylül University (DEU)

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Divorced; Adjustment Reaction

Treatments: Behavioral: Divorce Adjustment Program (DAP)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06082089

218K458

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full 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.

Enrollment: 120 estimated patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being legally divorced
• Adjustment difficulties to divorce as indicated by having a FDAS-SF score of 98 or below for those with children and 94 or below for those without children (these scores are the average scores determined in the FDAS-SF Turkish adaptation study)
• Not being remarried or involved in a current romantic relationship
• Not receiving concurrent psychotherapy

Exclusion Criteria (as determined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5 [DSM-5] Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure and a confirmatory telephone screening with the eligible participants):

• Substance use problems
• Suicidal thoughts
• Psychotic symptoms

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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120 participants in 2 patient groups

Postdivorce Intervention Program

Experimental group

Description:

The experimental arm will receive the 5- or 6-session online group intervention program developed for divorced women.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Divorce Adjustment Program (DAP)

Wait List and Delayed Intervention

No Intervention group

Description:

In this arm, participants in the wait list control group will complete outcome measures without the intervention program being implemented. After the post intervention assessments are completed, this group will receive either the online intervention program or booklets including detailed information about the program, depending on their preference.