Effectiveness of Online Mindful Self-Compassion Teaching Program (MSC) on Health Anxiety and Psychological Flexibility During CoronaVirus

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and its consequences have had various effects on the psychological and social aspects of society causing considerable stress and anxiety to many people around the world. Regarding the relationship between health anxiety and psychological flexibility, the conscious self-compassion training program is one of the methods that can be effective. This research aims to study the effectiveness of the online conscious self-compassion training program on the health anxiety and psychological flexibility on society during the Corona outbreak. Therefore, according to the goal, in order to provide mental health services and reduce the risk of disease, a remote counseling network was designed.

The current research is experimental research with pre-test-post-test and control groups. The statistical population included all the people who filled out the health anxiety questionnaire on social networks; Among which 24 people were selected by available sampling whose health anxiety score was higher than 1 and a standard deviation above the mean of 40. They were randomly tested and assigned to two groups.  Salkoskis and Warwick's (2002)health anxiety scale, Dennis and Vander Wal's (2010) psychological flexibility, and Neff's (2003) self-compassion scale were used to collect data. The experimental group received self-compassion training for 8 sessions, but the control group did not receive any intervention. SPSS 2019 software was used for data analysis.

The results of covariance analysis showed that the Mindful Self-compassion Teaching Program led to a decrease in health anxiety compared to the control group in the post-test. In addition, the Mindful Self-compassion Teaching Program had a positive effect on increasing psychological flexibility and self-compassion (F=17.22, P=0.001).

According to the findings of this study, therapists can use the Mindful Self-compassion Teaching Program to help reduce health anxiety and increase psychological flexibility and self-compassion in people with health anxiety.