The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Resilience and Cognitive Avoidance Components of Aggressive Female Students with Emphasis on Cultural Context

Subject Areas : Psychology

Setareh Eidizadeh ¹ , Rezvan Homaei ²

1 - Graduated in Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Islamic Education, Ahv.C., Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Islamic Education,, Ahv.C., Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran

Received: 2025-03-08 Accepted : 2025-05-04 Published : 2025-06-22

Keywords: Acceptance and commitment therapy, Resilience, Cognitive avoidance,

Abstract :

The aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on resilience and cognitive avoidance components of aggressive female students with an emphasis on the cultural context. The statistical population of the study was all ninth grade female students in Ahvaz in 2024. The sample of the study was 30 individuals from the aforementioned population who were selected through purposive sampling procedure and randomly assigned to an experimental group (15 participants) and control group (15 participants). The research method was a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test type with control group and follow-up. The research instruments included Sexton and Dugas's Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (2008) and Connor and Davidson's Resilience Questionnaire (2003). The experimental group was exposed to 8 sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy, 90 minutes each for twice a week. After two months later the follow-up was processed.  In order to analyze the data, repeated measures analysis of variance test was used. The results of the study showed that acceptance and commitment therapy significantly reduced cognitive avoidance and increased resilience in the experimental group. It should be concluded that by applying acceptance and commitment therapy and adapting it to specific cultural needs and characteristics, the psychological and social status of aggressive female  students could be improved.

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