Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on parent-child conflict in professional adolescent female athletes with athletic injury

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on reduction of parent-child conflict in professional adolescent female athletes with athletic injury. The method of the study was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest and follow-up design and a control group. The statistical population included all adolescent female athletes with sports injuries in national teams, leagues and national competitions during 2019 in Tehran City, from among which 30 people were selected using available sampling and assigned to two groups of 15 people (experiment group and control group) randomly. Then, in pre-test all participants completed the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (1996), which measures three subscales including reasoning and verbal and physical aggression. In the next phase, the experiment group, despite the control group), received a one-month ACT intervention (twice a week, 90 min each). Finally, both groups took part in post-test and follow-up test. The results of MANOVA showed main effects of test and group and test*group interaction were significant for conflict and two of subscales (reasoning & verbal aggression; Ps< 0/001), but not for physical aggression (Ps>0/05). For all three variables, more analysis indicated that experiment group performed better in post-test and follow-up as compared to pre-test, but the performance of control group did not differ significantly in three different tests. In addition, experiment group outperformed control group in post-test and follow-up. In conclusion, ACT can reduce parent-child conflict in professional adolescent female athletes with athletic injury.