Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Abstract
Background & Objectives: Socioeconomic deprivation is one of the most significant forms of social disability. The mental health and academic achievement of adolescent girls in deprived areas are influenced by their poor socioeconomic status.
Furthermore, during adolescence, sexual arousal and attraction to the opposite sex begin. In Iran, despite cultural restrictions, the relationship with the opposite sex among adolescents has increased significantly in the last two decades. Teen dating violence is a detrimental factor to physical and mental health with long–term consequences, and deprived adolescent girls are not prepared to face this challenge. They feel they cannot deal effectively with this situation, so the risk of a negative image of "self and its abilities" increases. Here, the concept of unconditional self–acceptance is of particular importance. Self–acceptance means that one fully (unconditionally) accepts herself, her values, and her life. Self–acceptance opens the way for the growth of one's inner motivations, including achievement motivation. The achievement motivation is the individual's desire to achieve personal goals. On the other hand, acceptance and commitment therapy is a mindfulness–based cognitive–behavioral therapy that is effective for adolescents. This therapy aims to create a rich and meaningful life while the person accepts life's inevitable suffering and pain and becomes ready and committed to life. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on unconditional self–acceptance and achievement motivation of adolescent girls in deprived areas with experience of dating violence.
Methods: The research method was quasi–experimental with a pretest–posttest design and a control group. The statistical population comprised all girls aged 14 to 17 years living in deprived areas of Shiraz City, Iran, who had experienced violence in a dating relationship with the opposite sex. The modified version of the Conflicts Tactics Scale (CTS) was used to identify girls who experienced dating violence (Erickson et al., 2010). By purposive sampling, 34 eligible female volunteers were first included in the study and randomly divided into experimental and control groups; 24 of these persons participated until the end of the research (12 in each group). These girls were introduced to the researchers in two ways: some had used the educational and counseling services of an NGO in a deprived area, and the NGO counselors in their schools identified others. The exclusion criteria included absence from more than 2 sessions and withdrawal from continuing cooperation. The control group received no intervention, and the experimental group received twelve 70–minute training program sessions. The unconditional self–acceptance questionnaire (Chamberlain and Haaga, 2001) and the achievement motivation test (Hermans, 1970) were administered to both groups in the pretest and posttest. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (the Shapiro–Wilkes test, Levene test, and analysis of covariance) in SPSS software version 22. The significance level of the tests was set at 0.05.
Results: The present research results suggested that after eliminating the pretest effect, acceptance and commitment therapy effectively increased unconditional self–acceptance (p=0.011) and achievement motivation (p=0.002). In other words, according to Eta squared, the increases in the mean values of unconditional self–acceptance and achievement motivation were 26.9% and 38%, respectively, affected by the intervention with acceptance and commitment therapy.
Conclusion: The current research data indicate that group–based acceptance and commitment therapy positively improves unconditional self–acceptance and achievement motivation of deprived areas adolescent girls who experienced dating violence. Therefore, this method can improve adolescent girls' mental health and academic achievement in deprived areas who have experienced dating violence with the opposite sex.