The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Anxiety, Loneliness and Mind Wandering in Anxious Adolescent Girls

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: The level of anxiety in adolescent girls is higher than in adolescent boys. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on anxiety, loneliness and mind wandering in anxious adolescent girls.

Methodology: This study was a quasi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The population of this research consisted of all anxious adolescent girls referred to the counseling and psychological services centers of Tonekabon city during the summer of 2025 year, which 40 individuals were selected based on inclusion criteria using purposive sampling method and randomly assigned into two equal groups. The experimental group received 8 sessions of 90 minute acceptance and commitment therapy and the control group remained on the waiting list for training. The research instruments included the Anxiety Inventory (Beck et al., 1988), Loneliness Scale (Russell et al., 1978) and Mind Wandering Questionnaire (Mrazek et al., 2013). The data of this study were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance method in SPSS version 26 software.

Findings: The results of this research showed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in all three variables of anxiety, loneliness and mind wandering. In the other words, acceptance and commitment therapy led to a reduction of anxiety, loneliness and mind wandering in anxious adolescent girls (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, counselors and therapists can utilize acceptance and commitment therapy alongside other effective therapeutic approaches to reduce anxiety, loneliness and mind wandering.