The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Reduction, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia and Health Anxiety in Students

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy on the meta-worry, social anxiety and concern for the student's health. This semi-experimental research design was pretest-posttest control group. Population contained 15000 students, studying in Azad University of Hamadan. The sample consisted of 30 students (20 girls and 10 boys) were selected from the community. A sample of purposive sampling method was used. The subjects were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. The research assessment tools were, the scale of Wales was anxious thoughts. This tool measures social anxiety, generalized anxiety and health anxiety. Acceptance and commitment therapy intervention, based on eight individual 45-minute sessions weekly by the author of the article, was conducted at the Research Center of the MANSHOR MEHR. The subjects responded to a questionnaire before treatment, and one month after treatment. In order to analyze the data, descriptive statistics and analysis of covariance were performed. The results showed that, acceptance and commitment therapy reduced decline generalized anxiety and social anxiety, but did not reduce health concerns. It is suggested, acceptance and commitment therapy intervention that the researchers used in the study protocol to use in other communities and age groups.