Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Psychological Well-being and Resiliency of Abandoned Adolescents

Abandoned adolescents suffer from many problems that can affect their psychological well-being and their resilience compared with normal people. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on psychological well-being and resilience of abandoned adolescents. The present study was a quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population included all adolescents under the protection of State Welfare Organization of Tehran in 2016-2017. A sample of 60 of the adolescents was selected by convenience sampling method and was divided into two experimental and control groups and the intervention was conducted for the experimental group. The research tools included psychological well-being and resiliency scale. Data were analyzed by analysis of covariance by using SPSS-22. The mean (SD) age in the experimental group was 15.1 (2.1) and control group 15.4 (2.3). The mean (SD) psychological well-being score of the experimental group was 128.5 (1.5) in the pretest which increased to 134.7 (1.2) in the post-test (P<0.01); however, the mean (SD) of the control group in the pre-test was 127 (2.1) which varied to 128 (2.2) in the post-test which was not statistically significant. The mean (SD) resiliency score of the experimental group was 45.4 (1.3) in the pretest, which increased to 51.2 (1.9) in the post test (P<0.01); however, the mean (SD) of the control group in the pre-test was 42.4 (2.5) which varied to 42.7 (2.5) in the post-test which was not statistically significant. The study showed that acceptance and commitment therapy increased the resilience and psychological well-being of abandoned adolescents.