Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on insecure attachment, fear of intimacy, and addiction to social networks in teenagers with suicidal history

Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on insecure attachment, fear of intimacy, and social network addiction in teenagers with suicidal history.
Research method was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest, and control group and follow up. The statistical population (N = 94) were male and female adolescents referred to the emergency department of Imam Khomeini and Taleghani hospitals in the city of Kermanshah in western Iran for attempted suicide. Of these, using convenience sampling, 30 teenagers were selected and randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group. Measurement tools were Hazan & Shaver’s Attachment Styles 1987, Descutner and Thelen’s Fear of Intimacy (1991), Khajeh Ahmadi, Pouladi & Bahreini’s Addiction to Social Networks Questionnaires (2016), Hayes and Rose’s Acceptance and Commitment Treatment Program 2008. The experimental group subjects received eight weekly 90-minute sessions of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Data gathered from questionnaires filled out by both groups were analyzed in three stages using mixed variance analysis with repeated measurement.
Findings showed that acceptance and commitment treatment had a significant effect on insecure attachments (F= 26.10, P= 0.001), fear of intimacy (F= 18.19, P= 0.001), and addiction to social networks (F= 26.83, P= 0.001) and this effect remained constant in the three-month follow-up phase.
Since acceptance and commitment therapy leads to psychological flexibility and individual commitment to performing meaningful actions based on human values in life; it can be used as an effective intervention method for the treatment of psychological problems, including suicidal attempts in adolescents.