A comparison of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral training versus acceptance and commitment training in academic self-efficacy and social anxiety syndrome of medical students

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral training versus acceptance-and commitment training in academic self-efficacy and social anxiety syndrome of medical students. The statistical population included the students of Lorestan University of Medical Sciences. The participants of this study were 60 students suffering from social anxiety who volunteered to participate in the training sessions. They were selected by random sampling method from among 1500 students based on their social anxiety scores and structured clinical interview. They were randomly divided into three groups of cognitive-behavioral training, acceptance and commitment training, and the control group. The subjects in the experimental group were trained in 10 sessions. The instruments included Watson and Friend’s social anxiety questionnaire (1969), and the academic self-efficacy proposed by Migli et al. (2000), which were answered by the subjects in pre-test, post-test, and (2-month) follow-up sessions. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software version 24 and repeated measure analysis of covariance. The results showed that there was no difference between the experimental groups in the post-test phase. Moreover, cognitive-behavioral training and acceptance and commitment training were effective in increasing academic self-efficacy and reducing students' social anxiety syndrome (p<0/0001). However, in the follow-up phase, there was a significant difference between cognitive-behavioral training and acceptance and commitment training as opposed to the control group in terms of the components of social anxiety and academic self-efficacy. That is, training based on acceptance and commitment significantly reduced students' anxiety and increased their self-efficiency (p<0/0001