The Effectiveness of "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" (ACT) on Stress Symptoms in Female High School Students

Stress is a common problem during adolescence and is the cause of many mood disorders and anxiety; which requires timely interventions. The present study was conducted with the aim of the effectiveness of "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" on stress symptoms in female high school students.

This research was a quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test and control group that was conducted in the academic year of 2019-2020 in the statistical population of female students in the first secondary school of Someh Sara. 40 students participated in this study voluntarily and with simple random by lottery method were assigned to the intervention and control groups. But in the post-test phase, each group was reduced to 16 people. Data were collected using a questionnaire of demographic characteristics and " Stress Symptoms Inventory". Content validity index and reliability were checked and confirmed by internal consistency method by calculating Cronbachchr('39')s alpha and stability by retesting method. After receiving the pretest, the intervention group underwent "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" in 8 sessions. During this period, the control group did not receive any intervention, both groups then completed the post-test. Data analysis was performed in SPSS .21.

The intervention played an effective role in reducing Physical symptoms (F= 68.855,  P= 0.001) and cognitive (F=22.458, P=0.001), behavioral (F=33.472, P=0.001) symptoms and also, the total score (F = 78.221, P=0.001) of the intervention group. In contrast, the intervention had no effect on emotional symptoms (F= 3.795, P= 0.062). In total, "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" was able to explain 0.73 of the changes in the overall score of stress symptoms in the intervention group.

"Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" has played an effective role in reducing stress symptoms in adolescents. Therefore, it is suggested that therapists and health care providers consider the importance of this treatment in reducing stress in adolescents.