The Effectiveness of admission and commitment group therapy on decreasing impulsivity and high risk behaviors of secondary school students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment group therapy on reducing impulsivity and high-risk behaviors of female secondary school students. The research method was experimental and its design was pretest-posttest with experimental and control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of all female high school students in Shahrekord in the academic year of 2015-2016. 32 students were selected by random sampling and were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. The Acceptance and Commitment Approach Therapy program was administered to the experimental group in 8 sessions, each session for 90 minutes (twice a week), while the control group did not receive any intervention. Both experimental and control groups completed impulsivity questionnaire (Bart et al., 1995) and risk behaviors test (Rashid & Marabi, 2012) before and after treatment. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used for data analysis. Findings showed that acceptance and commitment therapy had a significant effect on impulsivity (motor impulsivity, cognitive impulsivity and lack of planning) and high risk behaviors (unsafe sexual behavior, violence, substance use) in female students (P <0.05). Based on the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that acceptance and commitment group therapy is an appropriate method to reduce impulsivity and high risk behaviors of female students.