Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

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Saeedmanesh M, Babaie Z. The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on anxiety and self-esteem in adolescents 14 to 16 years of stuttering. MEJDS 2017; 7 :56-56
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-862-en.html

Abstract
Objective: For children and teens, the acquisition of language has a profound effect on their growth. Effective verbal ability is needed for playing, communication with peers, academic achievement, general knowledge and behavioral and emotional development. Conversely, if the child's communicative function is not fully developed, there is a harmful social impact and an increased risk of psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, stress, depression, low self-esteem, and etc. The onset of stuttering is in the age range of 6 to 7, simultaneously with the development of emotional and social adaptability when children are most susceptible to this disorder. Self-esteem is a sense of worthiness. This sense comes from the sum of our thoughts, feelings, emotions and experiences throughout life. Stuttering teens have a negative opinion about their speech impairment, and they consider themselves incompetent since their childhood. These teenagers are reticent and lonely, and do not attend the crowd because of their fear of being mocked, especially among peers. They are not comfortable in their communications with family and friends. Acceptance and commitment therapy ACT is one of the traditional cognitive behavioral therapies. Its underlying principles include: 1) Adoption, or the desire to experience pain or other turbulent events without resorting to them. 2) Value-based action or commitment with desire to act as meaningful personal goals rather than eliminating undesirable experiences. Anxiety and self-esteem are thought to be factors that can affect quality of life. A treatment option is to reduce anxiety and increase self-esteem of these adolescents. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy on anxiety and self-esteem among stuttering adolescents aged 14-16 years old.
Methods: This is a two-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study. The population consisted of all stuttering adolescents at the age range of 14 to 18 years’ old who were referred to Rehabilitation clinics in Mobarakeh-Iran. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 20 participants. The participants were assigned to the experimental and control groups in equal numbers. The experimental group received 8 sessions of Acceptance and Commitment therapy. Anxiety level was measured by Depression and Anxiety Inventory (DASS-21) and self-esteem with Eysenck Self-Esteem Questionnaire (before and after the intervention). Validity and Reliability of the Anxiety Scale (DASS-21) in Iran were studied by Samani Jokar (2007). The results of calculating the correlation between the factors, the questionnaire in Anthony et al.'s study showed a correlation coefficient of 0.63. Each subscale of anxiety consists of seven statements. The Eysenck self-esteem questionnaire has 30 statements with scores ranging from 0 to 30, the higher the score, the higher the self-esteem. Hermazi Nezhad (1380) reported a validity of 74.7 for female students and 0/79 for male students. The coefficient of reliability was reported using Cronbach's alpha method to be 0/88 using the standard method to be 0/87. Single-variable and multi-variable variance were used to examine the research hypotheses.
Results: Data analysis showed that group therapy based on admission and commitment had a significant effect on anxiety scores (F=17.127, p<0.001) and self-esteem (F=52.183, p=0.012) Is.
Conclusion: Group therapy based on Acceptance and Commitment among stuttering adolescents decreased anxiety and increased self-esteem.