Comparison of the Effectiveness of Intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment and Reality Therapy on Increasing Self-Efficacy in Students with Experienced Emotional Breakdown

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Experienced emotional breakdown leads to a decline in self-efficacy and should be made to improve self-efficacy in these individuals through effective therapeutic methods. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to comparison the effectiveness of intervention based on acceptance and commitment and reality therapy on increasing self-efficacy in students with experienced emotional breakdown.

Methodology: This research was quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test and follow-up design with a control group. The research population consisted of female secondary school students in Pardis county of Tehran who had experienced emotional breakdown during the 2024–5 academic years; which from this group, 90 participants were selected via purposive sampling method and randomly assigned into three equal groups. The experimental groups underwent eight sessions of 60 minute by intervention based on acceptance and commitment and reality therapy, respectively, while the control group remained on a waiting list for the intervention. Data were collected using the love trauma inventory and self-efficacy scale, and were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance and Bonferroni post-hoc test in SPSS-26 software at a significant level of 0.05.

Findings: The findings indicated that both intervention methods of acceptance and commitment and reality therapy were effective in increasing self-efficacy in students with experienced emotional breakdown, and the results were maintained at the follow-up stage (P<0.05). Also, there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of the intervention methods in increasing their self-efficacy (P>0.05).

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, counselors and therapists can use both methods of intervention based on acceptance and commitment and reality therapy along with other effective treatment methods to increase self-efficacy in students with experienced emotional breakdown.