Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and its more severe form, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), are common issues among women of reproductive age, affecting physical, emotional, and interpersonal aspects of their lives. Mood and emotional fluctuations during this period can increase marital conflicts and reduce the quality of spousal relationships. Compassion-focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), emphasizing psychological flexibility and self-compassion, is a novel approach that can enhance women’s ability to manage emotions and reduce marital conflicts.
Methods: This semi-experimental study employed a pretest–posttest design with a one-month follow-up and a control group. The participants were married women with PMS in Hamadan city. Forty volunteers were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in eight weekly 60-minute sessions of group-based compassion-focused ACT, while the control group received no intervention. Data were collected using the Marital Conflicts Questionnaire and the PMS Questionnaire, and analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA in SPSS version 23.
Results: The findings indicated that group-based compassion-focused ACT significantly reduced marital conflict scores and its subscales in the experimental group (P<0.01), whereas no significant changes were observed in the control group. The effects of the intervention remained stable at the one-month follow-up.
Conclusion: Group-based compassion-focused ACT can effectively reduce marital conflicts in women with PMS by enhancing psychological flexibility and reducing negative emotional reactions, thereby improving the quality of marital relationships.