The study of effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on reduction separation anxiety disorder symptoms in children

One of the treatments in third wave of psychotherapy in relation to anxiety disorders is acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of ACT on reduction of symptoms in separation anxiety disorder in children. The method of this study was semi-experimental with pretest, post-test and control group.  28 children (7 and 8 years old) with anxiety disorder referring to Rasht city counseling clinics were selected using voluntary sampling method and randomly were assigned to experiment and control  groups. The parent completed Separation Anxiety Assessment Scale-parent form. Acceptance and commitment therapy was performed on the experimental group in 8 session and the data were analyzed using covariance analysis statistical method. The results showed that acceptance and commitment therapy is effective on reduction of symptoms separation anxiety disorder in children and can be used as a therapeutic approach.