Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Group Format for College Students

We randomly assigned 71 student participants to an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) group training or to a wait list. All participants completed measures at preintervention, 1-month postintervention, and 2-month follow-up. Students receiving ACT exhibited significantly reduced levels of general psychological distress and negative emotional symptoms at follow-up. Mental health outcomes for ACT were mediated by increases in psychological flexibility and mindfulness. Results suggest that ACT group training could be an effective mental health intervention in educational settings.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Christodoulou, V., Flaxman, P.E. and Lloyd, J. (2021), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Group Format for College Students. Journal of College Counseling, 24: 210-223., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/jocc.12192. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.