Clinical Psychology Achievements

The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Increasing Emotional Regulation Ability and Academic Motivation in Adolescents

https://doi.org/10.22055/jacp.2025.48800.1443
Volume 11, Issue 2
Spring 2025
Pages 33-48
Clinical Psychology Achievements

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Ashraf Akbari Dehaghi 1
mahdieh mollaie 2

1 Assistant Professor, Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Behavioral Sciences, University of Rehabilitation Sciences and Social Health, Tehran, Iran.

2 MA of Clinical Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Shahrood, Iran.

Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy in increasing the ability to regulate emotions and academic motivation in adolescents and it quasi-experimental designs (pre-test-post-test with a control group). The statistical population included all female adolescents (15 to 18 years old) studying in second-year high schools in Sabzevar who were referred to the Pewand Counseling Center and the Sabzevar Education and Psychological Services in the academic year 2024-2025 who had low academic motivation and difficulty in regulating emotions. 60 people who met the inclusion criteria were purposefully selected and then randomly assigned to two experimental groups (30 people) and control (30 people), which after dropout and matching, had 23 subjects in each group. After the pre-test, the intervention group received 8 sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy, while the control group did not receive any intervention at this time. The required data were collected using the Valerand (1992) and Garnevsky et al. (2006) academic motivation questionnaires. The analysis of covariance test was used to analyze the data. The findings indicate the effectiveness of the intervention because the research hypothesis was confirmed with a confidence level of 0.001. Acceptance and commitment therapy increased the ability to regulate emotions and academic motivation, and its effectiveness was 71% for increasing adaptive strategies, 64% for reducing maladaptive strategies, and 30% for increasing academic motivation. Therefore, this intervention was able to increase the ability to regulate emotions and academic motivation in adolescents.

Keywords

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Ability to regulate emotions
Academic motivation
Adolescents
Subjects
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