The effect of interpersonal relational role analysis on nursing students experiencing dating violence

INTRODUCTION: This study was conducted to determine the effect of Interpersonal Relational Role Analysis (IRRA) Group Therapy on attitudes toward dating violence, social problem-solving skills, self-esteem, and interpersonal awareness among nursing students who had experienced dating violence.
METHODS: This study employed a single-group, pretest, posttest, and follow-up quasi-experimental design and included 22 female nursing students who had experienced dating violence. Participants received 20 sessions of IRRA Group Therapy between April 2022 and September 2022. Data were collected using a Personal Information Form, the Attitudes Toward Dating Violence Scales, the Revised Social Problem-Solving Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Interpersonal Mindfulness Scale. The scales were administered to participants before group therapy, immediately after group therapy, and at one-month and three-month follow-ups. Descriptive statistics (mean±standard deviation for continuous variables and frequencies and percentages for categorical variables), the Friedman test, and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test with Bonferroni correction were used for data analysis.
RESULTS: The findings revealed that IRRA Group Therapy had a significant positive effect on participants’ mean scores on the Attitudes Toward Male Psychological Dating Violence Scale (p<0.001) and the total Social Problem-Solving Inventory (p<0.001), and that this effect persisted in follow-up measurements. IRRA Group Therapy did not produce statistically significant differences in participants’ mean scores on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (p=0.119) or the Interpersonal Mindfulness Scale (p=0.172) across pretest, posttest, and follow-up measurements.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: IRRA Group Therapy was found to be effective in reducing participants’ mean scores on the Attitudes Toward Male Psychological Dating Violence Scale and improving their social problem-solving skills. However, the therapy had no significant effect on participants’ mean scores on the Attitudes Toward Male Physical Dating Violence Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, or the Interpersonal Mindfulness Scale. In line with these results, it is recommended to increase psychosocial interventions in which students can express themselves and share their problems within group activities to generate solutions, conduct studies with different samples and problem areas to determine the effectiveness of IRRA group sessions, and extend the duration of interventions.

Keywords: Awareness, dating violence, group therapy, nursing, problem-solving, self-esteem, women