The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Negative Idealism, Stress and Anxiety of Female Secondary High School Students

Abstract

Abstract Background: damaging psychological components such as negative idealism, stress and anxiety can be followed by different cognitive, emotional and academic damages for the students that applying appropriate therapeutic methods to avoid it is a necessity. Therefore, the present study was conducted aiming to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on negative idealism, stress and anxiety of female secondary high school students. Material and Methods: it was a quasi-experimental study with pretest, posttest, and control group design. The statistical population of the current study was all female secondary high school students in the town of Malayer. 30 female secondary high school students were selected through purposive sampling method and they were randomly accommodated into experimental and control groups (each group of 15 students). The experimental group received eight seventy-five minute sessions of mindfulness-based cognitive-therapy during two months The applied questionnaires in this study included the questionnaire of stress, depression and anxiety (Lavibond, 1995) and negative idealism questionnaire (Trishort, et.al, 1995). The data from the study were analyzed through MANCOVA method. Findings: the results showed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy has significant effect on negative idealism, stress and anxiety of female secondary high school students (p < 0.001) in a way that this therapy was able to lead to the decrease of negative idealism, stress and anxiety of female secondary high school students. Conclusion: according to the findings of the present study it can be concluded that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can be used as an efficient therapy to decrease negative idealism, stress and anxiety of female secondary high school students through applying techniques such as thoughts, emotions and mindful behavior.