The effectiveness of group acceptance and commitment therapy on the shyness of high school female students

Abstract

One of the most important mental health issues in students is shyness. Considering adverse consequences of shyness in students’ lives, this study aimed to determine the efficacy of acceptance and commitment group therapy on the shyness of Zanjan High School female students. The research method was semi-experimental and based on the pretest-posttest control group design, with follow-up after one month. The sample included 38 participants who were selected by a multi-stage cluster sampling method and placed randomly in the experimental and control groups. At first, at the same time and in the same conditions, all the students responded to the Stanford Shyness Questionnaire (SSS; Zimbardo, Personal Communication, 1981). Then,the acceptance and commitment group therapy was performed for the experimental group in eight sessions; the control group received no intervention. In the end, both groups were evaluated by posttest, and then they were tracked after an interval of one month. In order to analyze data, the covariance analysis was applied. Findings showed that the acceptance and commitment therapy was meaningfully effective in decreasing shyness in the experimental group (p<0.01) and after one month, no significant changes were found in the results. These findings show that group acceptance and commitment therapy is an effective treatment for shyness in high school female students.