Comparison of the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and compassion focused therapy on quality of life among female adolescents with high-risk behaviors

Many factors, such as the lack of necessary skills, contribute to the emergence of high-risk behaviors in students. The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and compassion focused therapy (CFT) on the quality of life among adolescents with high-risk behaviors.

The present extended experimental study was conducted on 45 female students studying humanities at the 10th grade of high school in the academic year of 2016-2017 using a pretest-posttest control group design.The study population was selected by single-stage cluster sampling technique, and then randomly assigned into three groups of ACT (n=15), CFT (n=15), and control (n=15). The two intervention groups were subjected to eight 90-minute interventional sessions. Data collection tools included the Adolescent Risk-Taking Questionnaire and Quality of Life Questionnaire SF-36. The three groups filled out the research instruments before the implementation of the intervention and after the end of the eight interventional sessions in forms of pretest and posttest, respectively. Data analysis was performed in SPSS software (version 16) using multivariate analysis of covariance, independent t-test, and modified Bonferroni test.

The results indicated that both treatments were equally effective in the quality of life (P<0.01). The ACT group had the mean life of quality of 33.87 and 52.3 before and after the implementation of ACT, respectively. Furthermore, regarding the CFT group, the mean quality of life was obtained as 33.5 and 44.56 prior to and following the CFT intervention, respectively. However, no significant increase was observed in the control group in terms of this variable. The results also indicted the higher efficacy of ACT and CFT in the mental and physical health dimensions of the quality of life as compared to the control group (P<0.01).

Based on the findings of the present study, the combined application of ACT and CFT can have a significant impact on the quality of life among the female adolescents with high-risk behaviors and improve their well-being