A Randomized Control Trial to Evaluate the Use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to Increase Academic Performance and Psychological Flexibility in Graduate Students

• Published in: Behavior analysis in practice Vol. 11; no. 3; pp. 241 - 253
• Main Authors: Paliliunas, Dana, Belisle, Jordan, Dixon, Mark R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 28-09-2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Behavior; Behavioral Science and Psychology; College students; Colleges & universities; Education; Graduate students; Mental health; Mindfulness; Psychology; Special Section: Education of Behavior Analysts; Stress; Tutoring; United States > US; Values clarification; Psychological flexibility; Randomized controlled trial; Graduate students
• ISSN: 1998-1929; 2196-8934
• DOI: 10.1007/s40617-018-0252-x

Graduate students experience high levels of demand in their degree programs, which often results in difficulty maintaining their academic performance and managing their distress. The present study examined the effectiveness of a 6-week values clarification and committed action training program derived from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to increase academic performance and psychological flexibility of graduate students in a behavior analysis and therapy program by comparing a Values intervention group to a Study Tips active treatment control group on measures of academic performance, psychological flexibility, values-driven behavior, and stress. The results suggest that the Values group demonstrated statistically significant improvements in academic performance (
t
(32) = 1.902,
p
 < 0.05), psychological flexibility (
t
(32) = 1.895,
p
 < .05), and ratings of the importance of education-related values (
t
(32) = 2.013,
p
 < .05) compared to the control group, and nonsignificant improvements in reports of consistency with education-related values (
t
(32) = 0.7204,
p
 > .05) and perceived stress (
t
(32) = 1.521,
p
 > .05). The Values group also demonstrated a higher score for social validity than the control group following the intervention (
t
(32) = 2.449,
p
 < .05).