The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Group Therapy on the Components of Academic Well-being (Burnout, Engagement, Satisfaction, and Valuability) in Students

Background and Purpose: Today, the well-being construct has influenced the field of education in such a way that providing the mental well-being is one of the most important objectives of the developed societies. Regarding the importance of academic welfare and its influence on different aspects of academic performance, this study was done to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment group therapy (ACT) on the components of academic wellbeing (burnout, engagement, satisfaction, and valuability in students) in students. Method: Present research was a quasi-experimental study with control group pretest-posttest design. The study population included all the female students of the first cycle of the secondary school in Birjand city in 2018-2019. Based on the inclusion criteria, 34 students were selected by convenience sampling and then randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group (17 per group). Then, the experimental group received eight 60-min sessions of ACT; whereas the control group underwent no intervention. Data at pretest and posttest stages were gathered by Academic Well-being Scale (Tomin-Sweeney et al., 2012) and then analyzed by multi-variate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results: Results showed that after performing the intervention, there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the control and experimental groups in the components of school value, academic burnout, school satisfaction, and schoolwork engagement (P≤0.001). Conclusion: Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that through a combination of vitality, clarifying the experiences and helping to accept them, ACT can make positive changes in the individual. Specifically, because of increasing the efforts focused on personal development, acceptance and commitment make a positive meaning in the studentchr('39')s mind and provide the situation for promoting the academic well-being.