The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Adolescent Mental Health: Swedish and Australian Pilot Outcomes

• Published in: Journal of child and family studies Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 1016 - 1030
• Main Authors: Livheim, Fredrik, Hayes, Louise, Ghaderi, Ata, Magnusdottir, Thora, Högfeldt, Anna, Rowse, Julie, Turner, Simone, Hayes, Steven C., Tengström, Anders
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.04.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: ACT (Acceptance and commitment therapy); Adolescent depression; Adolescent stress; Adolescents; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Australia; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child and School Psychology; Control Groups; Coping; Departments; Depression; Depression (Psychology); Early Adolescents; Effect Size; Health Conditions; Intervention; Mental depression; Mental Health; Meta Analysis; Original Paper; Psychology; Resistance (Psychology); School Health Services; School intervention; Schools; Skills; Social Sciences; Sociology; Stress; Sweden; Teaching Methods; Teenagers; Therapy; Young Adults; Youth; Australia; Sweden; Adolescent stress; ACT (Acceptance and commitment therapy); School intervention; Adolescent depression
• ISSN: 1062-1024; 1573-2843; 1573-2843
• DOI: 10.1007/s10826-014-9912-9

Depression, anxiety and stress are common problems among adolescents. Teaching young people coping strategies in school-based intervention programs is one promising approach hoped to remedy the negative consequences of distress in adolescence. The aim of the two pilot studies was to examine the effect of a brief intervention based on the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on depressive symptomatology (Australian study, N  = 66) and stress (Swedish study, N  = 32) among adolescents screened for psychosocial problems in school settings. In both studies, subjects were assigned to receive the ACT-group-intervention, or a control intervention featuring individual support from the school health care. The Australian study was a planned comparison, with random allocation for girls, plus one replication of a boys group. The Swedish study used a randomized controlled design. The ACT-intervention was an 8-session manualized group program. The Australian study showed significant reductions in depressive symptoms with a large effect, and significant reductions in psychological inflexibility with a medium effect when compared to the control group who received standard care. In the Swedish study, the ACT-intervention group, when compared to the control group, reported significantly lower levels of stress with a large effect size, and marginally significant decrease of anxiety, and marginally significant increased mindfulness skills. Taken together, the ACT-intervention seems to be a promising intervention for reducing stress and depressive symptoms among young adolescents in school and should be tested in full-sized studies. Limitations of these two pilots include small samples.