Effectiveness of cognitive behavioral counseling based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for psychological flexibility in drug-abusing mothers

Today, addiction is a very important threat to the health of the family system. Cognitive-behavioral therapies with emphasis on mindfulness and attention to cognitive flexibility are effective in rehabilitation of mothers addicted to substance abuse. In this regard, the question of the present study was whether cognitive-behavioral counseling based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is effective on the psychological flexibility of mothers dependent on substance abuse?

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral counseling based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on psychological flexibility of mothers dependent on substance abuse.

The present study was conducted by quasi-experimental method and pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of the present study comprises those addictive mothers who have been hospitalized in the addiction treatment center of Shiraz during spring 2019. A total number of thirty addictive mothers were selected making use of available sampling. They were divided into two groups of control and experimental. Each group consisted of 15 samples. The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire of Bond et al (2007) was used as pre-test and post-test designs alike. We also employed 12-session protocol of Flaxman et al (2011) for acceptance and commitment counselling. The method of analysis of covariance was chosen to analyze collected data.

The results showed cognitive-behavioral counseling which was based on acceptance and commitment therapy had effective on psychological flexibility of addictive mothers. There was a significant difference between the two groups (P<0/01).

According to findings, cognitive-behavioral counseling, which was based on acceptance and commitment, increases the psychological flexibility of addicted mothers.