The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Academic Emotion of Hope and Academic Self-Concept of Female Students with Test Anxiety

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on academic emotion of hope and academic self-concept of female students with test anxiety. The research design was quasi-experimental with pretest/posttest and a control group. The statistical population of the study included all female students of the 11th and 12th grades in Marvdasht, (n= 3265), in the academic year 2020-2021. Convenience sampling was used to select a sample of 30 students who were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). Research tools included the Academic Emotion of Hope Questionnaire (Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, & Perry, 2002), Test Anxiety Questionnaire (Sarason, 1990), and the School Self-Concept Inventory (Chen and Thompson, 2004). The experimental group was subjected to ACT for 8 sessions of 90 minutes. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data. The results of the research showed that this intervention led to a significant increase in performance in the components of academic excitement, hope and academic self-concept in the experimental group in the post-test stage. Therefore, it can be concluded that this intervention can increase students' academic excitement, hope, and academic self-concept.