The Online Strength-Informed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Among COVID-19-Affected Adolescents

• Published in: Research on social work practice Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 465 - 474
• Main Authors: Duan, Wenjie, Kong, Yansi, Bu, He, Guan, Qiujie, Chen, Zheng, Luo, Qiansheng, Zhang, Jing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.05.2022; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Acceptance; Acceptance and commitment therapy; Adolescents; Anxiety; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Internet; Pandemics; Quality of life; Teenagers; Test anxiety; COVID-19; anxiety symptoms; adolescent; strength-informed act; quality of life
• ISSN: 1049-7315; 1552-7581
• DOI: 10.1177/10497315211067270

Purpose: This study develops and investigates the changes in anxiety symptoms and quality of life (QoL) among participants of the online Strength-informed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (SACT) across three tests. Methods: A small-scale, quasi-experiment with no control group was conducted. Repeated-measures analysis was employed to assess the changes of the three tests, which were the pre-experimental, post-test, and 3-month follow-up test. A total of 47 adolescents (ages 10–12) completed the 45-min intervention that lasted 10 weeks. Results: Compared with the pre-experimental, the post-test indicated significant anxiety symptoms reduction but not a statistically significant increase in QoL. The 3-month follow-up test indicated reduced anxiety symptoms and improved QoL compared with the pre-experimental. The with-in subject changes were substantial. Conclusions: The online SACT is a promising model to reduce anxiety symptoms and promote QoL among adolescents during the current COVID-19 pandemic, which show both short- and long-term benefit to the participants.