The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment-Based Group Psychotherapy on Increasing Sleep Quality and Reducing Distress in Dormitory Students

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment-based group psychotherapy on increasing sleep quality and reducing distress in dormitory students. The research method was a semi-experimental type with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all dormitory students of Zabol University who were studying in 1403. 40 people were selected through purposive sampling through clinical interviews and entered the treatment process after meeting the research entry and exit criteria. The sample was randomly assigned to 20 people in the experimental group and 20 people in the control group. For group training, the ACT therapy package was used, which includes 8 sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy. After the end of the intervention, both the experimental and control groups were subjected to a post-test. For data collection, the Petersburg Sleep Quality Scale (1989) and the Kessler Distress Questionnaire (2002) were used. The data were collected using The results were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOV). The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of sleep quality and distress reduction of the experimental and control groups in the post-test stages after removing the pre-test effect. As a result, group training based on acceptance and commitment can increase sleep quality and reduce students' distress.