زهرا معرفتی

The present paper aimed to investigate rational-emotive behavior therapy on self-esteem and self-criticism of females with binge-eating behavior. A quasi-experimental design was utilized in this study, which involved a control group, a pre-test, and a post-test of samples taken from two clinics in Tehran (Armaghane Salamat and Zehne Aram, district 3), of which 24 females were selected through a purposive sampling method throughout October to December 2019. There were 12 participants in each of the experimental and control groups. Afterward, they were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group (n=12) was treated with rational-emotive behavior therapy, for eight weekly 90-120 minute sessions, while the control group (n=12) did not receive any treatment. All participants were tested using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (SES)and The Levels of Self-criticism (LOSC) Scale methods. In addition to descriptive statistics, and Normality tests were employed to interpret the results and the SPSS-25 program was used for all the analyses. Considering the results, there was a significant difference between the pretest and post-test results for self-esteem (26.93±3.94) and self-criticism (52.40±5.54) indicating that the experimental group’s post-test scores were higher relative to their pretest scores, while the control group’s scores decreased self-esteem from the pretest (22.53±4. 23) to the posttest (21.34±3. 83) and increased self-criticism from the pretest (61.34±6.71) to the posttest (62.34±6.48). The findings showed that rational-emotive behavior therapy could help females with binge-eating behavior. Therefore, this intervention program is recommended for improving self-esteem and mitigating self-criticism among females with binge-eating behavior.