The Effectiveness of "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" (ACT) on resilience and cognitive flexibility in prisoners

Introduction: Improving the psychological health of prisoners is one of the programs of the prisons organization, which prevents the recurrence of crime and social security. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" (ACT) on resilience and cognitive flexibility in prisoners. Methods: The method of the present study was quasi-experimental and its design was pre-experimental-post-experimental-follow-up with control group. The statistical population of the present study was all prisoners of non-financial crimes in Ahvaz Central Prison in 2019. The research sample selected 30 people using the convenience sampling method from among the eligible applicants to participate in the "Acceptance and Commitment Treatment" and randomly (as a lottery) to two groups of intervention and control (15) people were assigned to each group. The research instruments were "Cognitive Flexibility Scale" and "Connor and Davidson Resilience Scale". Qualitative content validity and internal consistency was performed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. After receiving the pre-test, the intervention was performed in the eight, 90-minute sessions for the intervention group, but the control group received their usual interventions. Data analysis was performed with SPSS.21. Results: The trend of changes in the intervention group compared to the control group in the measurement stages in the variables of resilience (P=0.001, F=33.475) and cognitive flexibility (P=0.001, F=18.656) Significantly different (P <0.05) and about 54% and 40%, respectively, of the differences in observation in the variables of resilience and cognitive flexibility due to group membership (intervention). To compare these changes over time, Benfron's subtest was used. Changes between pre-test with post-test, pre-test with follow-up, and post-test with follow-up are only meaningful in the intervention group (P <0.05). Conclusions: "Acceptance and Commitment Treatment" increased the resilience and cognitive flexibility. Therefore, it is recommended that this method be used to increase cognitive resilience and flexibility in prisons.