The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Social Adjustment and Depression among Female High School Students with Specific Learning Disorder in Sari in Northern in Iran

Acceptance and commitment therapy is one of the methods for increasing social adjustment and improving depression among students with learning disabilities. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of admission and commitment therapy on social adjustment and depression among junior high school female students with learning disorder in Sari in northern Iran. The present study was semi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population consisted of all junior high school female students in Sari. A sample of 30 people was selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two groups of experimental and control and intervention was performed for the experimental group. Data were gathered using Social Adjustment Questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory and analyzed by Covariance and SPSS software version 21. The mean (SD) age was 16.5 (0.4) years among the experimental group and 16.1 (0.7) the control group. The study showed that the mean (SD) score of depression in the experimental group was 20.4 (3.2) which decreased in post-test and follow up to 12.2 (3.1) and 12.1 (2.7) (P<0.001), but the mean (SD) score of depression in the pre-test and post-test of the control group did not show a significant difference. The mean (SD) of social adjustment in the experimental group from 12.1 (3.4) in post-test and follow up increased to 19.4 (3.2) and 19.6 (3.7) respectively (P<0.001). However, the mean (SD) score of social adjustment in the pre-test and post-test of the control group did not show a significant difference. The study showed that acceptance and commitment-based treatment increased social adjustment and depression among junior high school female students with learning disorder.