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

Abstract

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). Keywords Values clarification. Randomized controlled trial. Graduate students. Psychological flexibility In 2015, there were 2.9 million students enrolled in graduate degree programs in the USA, and within the next 10 years, that number is expected to increase by as much as 12 % (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2017). While the number of students enrolling in graduate studies is increasing, attrition is a common problem among this population, with varying rates of program completion among programs in different areas of study. For example, attrition in master's and doctorate level psychology-related programs can be as high as 10% of students (Michalski, Cope, & Fowler, 2016). Graduate students' failure to complete their degree programs may be related to the high demands they experience, which can result in various academic and psychological problems.

Randomized controlled trial of a web‐based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) program to promote mental health in university students

“…To our knowledge, the present study and the YOLO Program pilot study (Viskovich & Pakenham, ) are the first web‐based ACT interventions to show mediation of all the measured ACT processes across a wide range of primary outcomes. Of particular interest for this population, was the mediating role of education values with respect to depression, anxiety, stress, well‐being, self‐compassion, and academic performance, particularly given that it has also been shown to be related to high‐grade point average (Chase et al, ; Paliliunas, Belisle, & Dixon, ). Education values are likely to play a potent motivating role in fostering both learning and personal well‐being (Neff, Hsieh, & Dejitterat, ).…”

Can Behavior Analysis Help Us Understand and Reduce Racism? A review of the Current Literature

“…A relatively new procedure rooted in RFT principles that combines mindfulness and behavioral-based procedures called acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) stems from the early 1980s (see Zettle, 2005, for a historical and empirical review). In the past few years, researchers have published studies on acceptance and commitment training (ACTr) for parent training (Corti et al, 2018;Gould, Tarbox, & Coyne, 2018;Hahs, Dixon, & Paliliunas, 2018;Pennefather, Hieneman, Raulston, & Caraway, 2018), gambling (Dixon, Wilson, & Habib, 2016), decreasing impulsivity (Dixon et al, 2019), reducing inflexible behavior (Szabo, 2019), teaching job interview skills (Brazeau et al, 2017), training staff (Castro, Rehfeldt, & Root, 2016;Chancey et al, 2018), and increasing academic performance (Paliliunas, Belisle, & Dixon, 2018). ACT may also help us intervene on critical social issues related to racial bias (Levin et al, 2016;Lillis & Hayes, 2007).…”

“…The studies reviewed here suggest we can have a positive effect on race and prejudice using the tools and strategies described. The number of ACTr-related studies published by behavior analysts is on the rise (e.g., Brazeau et al, 2017;Castro et al, 2016;Eilers & Hayes, 2015;Enoch & Dixon, 2017;Gould et al, 2018;Hahs et al, 2018;Paliliunas et al, 2018;Rosales, Jowett Hirst, Garcia, & Rehfeldt, 2019), and the topic is in at least one commonly used behavior analysis textbook (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2020). However, it is unclear how many behavior analysts are aware of or competent in the use of ACTr-related and mindfulness strategies.…”

Evaluation of a web-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) program to increase self-care and mental health skills in university students

“…In university student samples, ACT has been effective in a variety of contexts, for example: in improving academic performance and education values (Chase et al, 2013;Levin, Pistorello, Hayes, Seeley, & Levin, 2015;Paliliunas, Belisle, & Dixon, 2018;Sandoz, Kellum, & Wilson, 2017); in a range of personal and therapeutic outcomes in clinical psychology students (Pakenham, 2015a;Stafford-Brown & Pakenham, 2012); in improving depression and quality of life (Eustis et al, 2018;Rasanen et al, 2016); in improving mental health in Japanese students studying abroad (Muto, Hayes, & Jeffcoat, 2011); for chronic skin picking (Twohig, Hayes, & Masuda, 2006b); procrastination (Wang et al, 2016); and lowering test anxiety (Brown et al, 2011). The next section is an indepth review of ACT intervention studies with student populations.…”

“…First, using worksheets emailed weekly to participants, Paliliunas et al (2018) Second, ACT has been used in a bibliotherapy format that evaluated the use of a selfhelp book in improving mental health outcomes in Japanese university students living abroad (Muto et al, 2011). Results indicated that compared to the waitlist control group, the treatment group improved on general mental health and psychological flexibility.…”