The Efficacy of acceptance and commitment based therapy (ACT) on depressive symptoms and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in depressive students

This study aimed to determine the efficacy of acceptance and commitment based therapy (ACT) on depressive symptoms and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in depressive students. The research method was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and follow-up design with the control group. The sample was selected by multistage sampling method and included 40 students who were matched from age, educational status, lack of mental and physical diseases, clinical interview and acquiring higher than 19 on the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II) and other criteria considered in this research. The participants were randomly divided into groups as control and experimental. The research instruments included Beck Depression Inventory second edition (BDI-II) and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (CERQ), respectively. The experimental group received 8 sessions of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) but the control group did not receive any intervention.The results showed a significant difference between the two groups in terms of depression and cognitive emotion regulation strategies.