The effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on experiential avoidance and death anxiety in elderly women

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on experiential avoidance and death anxiety in elderly women. The research method was quasi-experimental with a pre-test post-test design and control group. The population of this study consisted of all elderly women who were residing in Amin Islam nursing home of Mahabad in the winter of 2020. 30 participants entered the research by convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned into an experimental group (15 people) and a control group (15 people). The experimental group received mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for eight 90-minutes sessions and the control group was placed on the waiting list for 2 months. Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (Bond et al., 2011) and Death Anxiety scale (Templer, 1970) was administered in order to collect data. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data. results showed that by controlling the effect of pre-test, there was a significant difference between the mean of post-test scores of the experimental and control groups in experiential avoidance and death anxiety. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that counselors, psychologists, and psychotherapists use mindfulness-based cognitive therapy as an effective intervention to reduce experiential avoidance and death anxiety in the elderly population.