Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Psychological Well-being and Resiliency of Abandoned Adolescents.

Background and Objective: Abandoned adolescents suffer from many problems that can affect their psychological well-being and their resilience compared with normal people. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on psychological well-being and resilience of abandoned adolescents.

Materials and Methods: The present study  was a  quasi-experimental  with pretest-posttest  design  with control group.  The  statistical population  included all  adolescents  under the  protection  of State  Welfare Organization of  Tehran  in 2016-2017.  A  sample of  60  of the  adolescents  was selected  by  convenience sampling  method and  was  divided into  two  experimental and  control  groups and  the  intervention was conducted  for  the experimental  group. The  research tools  included  psychological well-being  and  resiliency scale. Data were analyzed by analysis of covariance by using SPSS-22.

Results: The mean (SD)  age  in the  experimental  group was  15.1  (2.1) and  control  group 15.4  (2.3).  The mean (SD) psychological  well-being  score of  the  experimental group  was  128.5 (1.5)  in  the pretest  which increased to 134.7 (1.2) in the post-test (P<0.01); however, the mean (SD) of the control group in the pre-test was  127  (2.1) which  varied  to 128  (2.2)  in the  post-test  which was  not  statistically significant.  The  mean (SD) resiliency score of the experimental group was 45.4 (1.3) in the pretest, which increased to 51.2 (1.9) in the  post  test (P<0.01);  however,  the mean  (SD)  of the  control  group in  the  pre-test was  42.4  (2.5) which varied to 42.7 (2.5) in the post-test which was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: The study  showed  that acceptance  and  commitment therapy  increased  the resilience  and psychological well-being of abandoned adolescents.