Investigation of the effect of act-based intervention program on social anxiety levels, psychological flexibility and value of adolescents

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)-based intervention program on adolescents' social anxiety, psychological resilience and value. This research is a quasi-experimental study aiming to examine the effectiveness of the ACT-based intervention program developed to reduce the social anxiety of high school students. The dependent variables of the study are social anxiety, psychological flexibility and valuing levels. Its independent variable is the ACT-based intervention program. In the research, a 2x3 quasi-experimental model with experimental and control groups, pre-test/post-test and follow-up measurement and qualitative content analysis was used. The research design is shown in Table 1 below. Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Acceptance and Action Form II and Valuation Scale were used in the pretest, posttest and follow-up of the research. In a group study to reduce the social anxiety levels of high school students, the Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale was applied to all 9th and 10th grade students of an Anatolian high school in Adana province Seyhan district to form the Experimental and Control groups of the research. 11th and 12th Grades are not included in the program due to the intensity of the curriculum. As a result of the applications, 18 students who were found to have missing items were excluded from the selection for the program. Among all students participating in the application, 14 students were selected for group work through random assignment among students with medium and high levels of "Social Anxiety". The follow-up test was applied to the experimental group four weeks later to test the hypotheses that there was no significant difference between the social anxiety, psychological flexibility, and value scales post-test mean scores of the adolescents in the experimental group participating in the ACTMP, and the scores did not differ. It shows that the changes that occur as a result of the implementation of the intervention program are permanent. Keywords: Adolescence, acceptance and commitment therapy, social anxiety, psychological flexibility, value, psychoeducational intervention program