Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Based Therapy (Act) on Depressive Symptoms and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Depressive Students

This study aimed to determine the efficacy of acceptance and commitment based therapy (act) on depressive symptoms and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in depressive students. the research method was a quasi-experimental study with a pre test, post test, follow-up design and a control group. the sample was selected by multistage sampling and included 40 students who were matched by age, educational status, lack of mental or physical diseases, clinical interviews and by scoring over 19 on the beck depression inventory, second edition (bdi-ii) along with other criteria considered in this research. the participants were randomly divided into a control and an experimental group. the research instruments included the bdi-ii and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (cerq). the experimental group received eight sessions of act and the control group did not receive intervention. the results showed a significant difference between groups in terms of depression and cer strategies (p< .01). the rate of depression and negative cer strategies in the experimental group was significant lower than in the pre-test and control group and their positive cer strategies were significantly higher. these results were persisted significantly to the follow-up period. the present study showed that act effectively reduced depressive symptoms and negative cer strategies and increased positive cer strategies in depressive students.