Document Type : Research Article
Authors
1 Associate Professor, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
2 PhD Student, Department of Psychology, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
Abstract
Studies have named adolescence as the period of onset of anxiety disorders (Chavani et al., 2023). One of the problems that adolescents experience and is body dissatisfaction. Among adolescence aged 13 to 19, the rate of body dissatisfaction was 75% (Cavalho et al., 2020). Considering that adolescence is associated with body dissatisfaction, anxiety and co-rumination, it is necessary to pay attention to psychological therapies. Among the new therapies that have attracted the attention of researchers in recent years is time perspective therapy. In time perspective therapy, techniques such as checking the dimensions of the past, present and future time perspective are taught, and then people change their negative time perspective towards the past, present and future to positive perspectives (Seward et al., 2014). Research has confirmed the effectiveness of this therapy in reducing anxiety (Mirzania et al., 2021) and co-rumination (Esmaili et al., 2022a). However, among adolescents with body dissatisfaction, the effectiveness of time perspective therapy has not been investigated; Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of time perspective therapy on body dissatisfaction, anxiety and common rumination of adolescent girls with body dissatisfaction.
The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design. The statistical population of this research was made up of girls’ adolescents with body dissatisfaction in the age range of 15 to 18 years in Rasht city. Among them, 28 adolescents agreed to participate in the research and were randomly replaced in two experimental (14 adolescents) and control (14 adolescents) groups.
The Body shape (Cooper et al., 1987; cited in Rezaei et al., 2014), Beck's Anxiety (Beck et al.,1988; cited in Khesht-Masjedi et al., 2015)), and Co-rumination (Rose, 2002; cited in Ariapooran, 2021) were used to collect the data. For the experimental group, the intervention based on time perspective (Seward et al., 2014) therapy was implemented in 8 sessions (two 1.5h sessions per week). Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) test.
Before performing the multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), the assumption of homogeneity of the regression slope was confirmed for body dissatisfaction (p<0.38; F=0.81), anxiety (p<0.32; F=1.03), and co-rumination (p<0.61; F=0.27) F). In addition, Levene's test confirmed the equality of variances between groups in the post-test of body dissatisfaction (p<0.23; F=1.48), anxiety (p<0.48; F = 0.49) and co-rumination (P>0.19; F=1.80). The results of the box test also showed the homogeneity condition of the variance-covariance matrices (p<0.70; F=0.63).
According to MANCOVA, the effectiveness of time perspective therapy on reducing body dissatisfaction (p<0.001; Wilks's lambda f=22.08), anxiety (p<0.001; Wilks's lambda f=80.58), and co-rumination (p>0.001; Wilks's lambda f=67.34) was significant with pre-test control. It can be said that body dissatisfaction, anxiety, and co-rumination have decreased after therapy, and the effect size of time perspective therapy on reducing body dissatisfaction, anxiety, and joint rumination is 0.63, 0.69, and 67, respectively.
The results showed that time perspective therapy had a significant effect on reducing body dissatisfaction, anxiety and co-rumination of adolescent girls. In previous studies, the effectiveness of time perspective therapy on body dissatisfaction has not been investigated, but it can be said that this result is consistent with the previous finding that the effectiveness of this treatment on anxiety (Mirzania et al., 2021) and common rumination of adolescents (Ismaili et al. colleagues, 2022a) have confirmed. Time perspective therapy, people become aware of their positive and negative perspectives regarding the past, present, and future, and change the negative aspects of their time perspective to positive aspects and states (Seward et al., 2014), so this therapy teaches adolescents to receive the positive aspects of their lives and gain a positive self-awareness towards the time, which will most likely reduce body dissatisfaction, anxiety, and common rumination. In general, based on the results, therapists and counselors are suggested to use this treatment to reduce the psychological problems of adolescent’s girls, including body dissatisfaction, anxiety, and co-rumination. In addition, it is suggested that time perspective therapy be held through educational workshops for counselors and psychologists who work with adolescents so that they can use this therapy to reduce psychological problems of adolescents.
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