Comparison of the Effectiveness Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Distress Tolerance of Female Adolescents with Self-Injury Behaviors

The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) plus mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on distress tolerance of female adolescents with self-injury behaviors using a quasi-experimental and pretest-posttest design with control groups. Sixty female students were selected as the sample from all female students in public schools in District 1 of Tehran via stepwise cluster sampling method and randomly divided into three groups (n=20 in each group). The first experimental group (ACT) and the second experimental group (mindfulness) received 8 sessions of therapeutic interventions (60-70 minutes per week), while the control group had no intervention. The self-report list of self-injury behaviors was used before, immediately after and 2 months after the intervention sessions for data collection (Klonsky, & Glenn, 2009) plus distress tolerance scale (DTS) (Simons, & Gaher, 2005). SPSS software version 23 was used for data analysis. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) indicated that both intervention methods were effective on increasing distress tolerance and its components (P<.01). The results of Bonferroni test revealed no significant difference between effectiveness of ACT and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on distress tolerance of students with self-injury behaviors. Thus, it can be found that both intervention methods were effective on enhancing adolescent distress tolerance and both approaches can be used to improve the mental health of adolescents with self-injury behaviors.