Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy on psychological flexibility and cognitive avoidance in female students with exam anxiety

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy on psychological flexibility and cognitive avoidance in female students with exam anxiety. The present study was experimental with pretest, posttest and control group design and a two-month follow-up stage. The statistical population included second grade female high school students with exam anxiety in Shahr-e-kord City in academic year 2018-19. 30 students suffering from exam anxiety were selected using clustered random sampling method and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (each group of 15). The experimental group received Dialectical Behavior Therapy intervention (Linhan, 2004) in ten seventy-five-minutes sessions during two and half months. The applied questionnaires in this study included Questionnaire of Sarason Test Anxiety (QSTA), Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire (CFI) and Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (CAQ). The data obtained from the study were analyzed through repeated measurement ANOVA Using SPSS23 statistical software. The results showed that Dialectical Behavior Therapy has significant effect on the psychological flexibility and cognitive avoidance in female students with Exam anxiety (p<0.001). According to the findings of the present study it can be concluded that the Dialectic Behavior Therapy can be applied as an efficient therapy to improve psychological flexibility and decrease of cognitive avoidance in the students with exam anxiety.