Effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on social anxiety, rejection sensitivity and acceptance of social anxiety disorder-prone college students

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on social anxiety, rejection sensitivity, and acceptance of social anxiety disorder-prone college students. A total of 400 students of four-year colleges who lived in Chonbuk province completed the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS). The 16 participants who were selected by the scale were randomly assigned to 8 in the acceptance and commitment therapy group and 8 in the control group. The ACT program was administered for 8 sessions. All participants completed the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS), Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire(RSQ), and Acceptance Action Questionnaire-Ⅱ(AAQ) at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and 5-week follow-up period. The results of this study were as follows: Social anxiety, and rejection sensitivity were significantly decreased in the therapy group compare with the control group, while acceptance was significantly increased compared with the control group. The effect of social anxiety, rejection sensitivity and, experiential avoidance were maintained up to follow-up. Finally, the implications and the limitations of this study, and the suggestions for future study were also discussed.