The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on dimensions of mental health (anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms and social function disorder) in women with obesity

Subject Areas : social psychology

Fatemeh Hedayatzadeh ¹ , Hasan Ahadi ² , Soheila Khodaverdian ³

1 - Department of Psychology, Kish International Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kish Island, Iran
2 - Professor, Department of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Sciences and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Center Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2019-05-15 Accepted : 2019-08-18 Published : 2019-09-23

Keywords: Depression, mental health, social function disorder, anxiety, somatic symptoms, acceptance and commitment,

Abstract :

The aim of present research was determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on dimensions of mental health (anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms and social function disorder) in women with obesity. The method of study was a semi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design with an experimental and control groups. The research population was women with obesity referring to nutritional clinics of Babol city in 2018 year. Totally 30 people were selected by available sampling method and randomly divided into two groups (15 people in each group). The experimental group trained 8 sessions with the method of acceptance and commitment therapy (weekly one session) and the control group didn’t received training. The research instrument was mental health questionnaire (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979). Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance method and with using SPSS-21 software. The Findings showed that acceptance and commitment therapy led to decrease the anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms and social function disorder in women with obesity (P<0/001). The results indicated importance of acceptance and commitment therapy on decreasing the anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms and social function disorder in women with obesity. Therefore, therapists can use mention method to promote mental health in women with obesity.