The Effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Social Anxiety and Body Image in Women with Obesity

Women with obesity are exposing to many psychological problems. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of acceptance commitment therapy on social anxiety and body image in women with obesity. The research method was quasi-experimental (pre-test, post-test with control group). In this research, all women with obesity (106 women) were evaluated psychologically by census sampling method. 48 women among them had symptoms of social anxiety and undesirable body image and 30 of them randomly assigned in experimental and control groups. The Social Anxiety and Multidimensional Body -Self Relations Questionnaires were used for collecting the data. Acceptance Commitment Therapy was trained for experimental group in 8 sessions. Data were analyzed with Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA). Results indicated that acceptance commitment therapy has been effective on decreasing the social anxiety and improving the body image in women with obesity (p<0/01). According to results, acceptance commitment therapy was suggested for improving psychological problems (spatially social anxiety and body image) in women with obesity.