The effectiveness of value-based Acceptance-Commitment Therapy for enhancing meaning of life in COVID-19

Abstract

As growing number of people are experiencing negative emotions such as depression and anxiety in the pandemic caused by COVID-19, the need of non-face-to-face psychotherapy is emerging in restriction caused by social distance. The commitment of value and meaning of life can act as a protective factor in the situation of experiencing psychological difficulties during the COVID-19. Thus, this study applied 'Value-based acceptance-commitment therapy for enhancing meaning of life' which is video conference group counselling and verified the effectiveness of program. A total of 40 adults who experienced depression were assigned to the experimental and control groups, 20 respectively. The program consisted of 8 sessions and in the experimental group program was conducted in twice a week for 4 weeks. As a result, the experimental group 's meaning of life, valuable life, acceptance, mindfulness increased and depression, anxiety were reduced significantly. However, the satisfaction of life has not increased. This suggests that the intervention of this program in the Covid-19 can help accept the psychological difficulties and improve the meaning of life. Last, implications and limitations of this study were discussed.

Characteristics and trends in acceptance and commitment therapy research: A bibliometric analysis

“…We analyzed the global ACT journal distribution, author output and collaboration, keyword co-occurrence, and a references’ citation burst analysis by visualizing and summarizing the structure, development, and future trends of ACT research. This was done to help future researchers understand dynamic changes in ACT research, new knowledge turning points, and identify future research directions ( Agarwal et al, 2016 ; Kim et al, 2021 ).…”

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Has Changed Adolescent Health: Physical Activity, Sleep, Obesity, and Mental Health

“…Non-face-to-face “untact” has become the norm for individuals and society as a whole [ 3 ]. The fear of COVID-19 and policies to control public activities has led to decreased social activities and weakened the vitality of societies [ 4 ]. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has had substantial effects on education.…”

“…Among Korean adolescents, 68.9% of middle school students and 80.0% of high school students are stressed by academic problems [ 17 ], and depression and academic grades are cited as the main causes of youth suicide [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]. The majority of adolescence is spent learning and studying [ 4 ], and approximately 95% of Korean adolescents do not follow the WHO’s recommendation of engaging in moderate or higher intensity physical activity for an average of 60 min per day [ 21 ]. About 5% of Korean adolescents meet the level of recommended physical activity of WHO, which is very low, and the rate of participation in physical activity is very low compared to that of American adolescents [ 22 ].…”