The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Concerns of Body Image in Females with Bulimia Nervosa

Today, bulimia nervosa is one of the common psychological disorders that disturb cognition, emotions, and behaviors of the affected people. The current study aimed at determining the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy in cognitive emotion regulation and body image concerns in females with bulimia nervosa. The current semi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design and control group was conducted on 160 females with bulimia nervosa referring to counseling centers in Mashhad, Iran. The sample consisted of 30 females with bulimia nervosa selected by purposeful sampling method and randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. The research instruments were the Garnefski cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire and the Littleton body image concern inventory. Reliability of the instruments were measured by Cronbach's alpha. The acceptance and commitment therapy package was performed in eight 90-minute sessions for the experimental group. Data was analyzed with SPSS version 22. Negative emotion control strategies, positive emotion regulation strategies, and worries about body image before intervention in the experimental group were 50.07, 32.33, and 81.53, and in the control group were 49.60, 33.40, and 81.20, respectively with no significant difference between the groups. However, after the intervention, the negative emotion regulation strategies, positive emotion regulation strategies, and concern of body image in the intervention group were 28.47, 56.0, and 69.13 and in the control group were 49.53, 33.40 and 83.4, respectively, which showed a significant difference between the groups (P ≤ 0.01). The acceptance and commitment therapy can reduce negative strategies and increases the positive strategies of emotional cognitive regulation. The findings also showed that concern about the body image is reduced by intervention. Therefore, it is recommended to use this therapeutic approach to improve bulimia nervosa and emotion regulation in such individuals