The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment-based Group Psychotherapy on Increasing Sleep Quality and Reducing Distress of Dormitory Students at Zabol University

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Dormitory students have challenges and problems in terms of decreased sleep quality and increased distress. Therefore, the aim of this study was determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment-based group psychotherapy on increasing sleep quality and reducing distress of dormitory students at Zabol University.

Methodology: This research was a quasi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The research population was all dormitory students at Zabol University in 2024-5 academic years, which 40 students were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to two groups of 20, including experimental and control groups. The experimental group received 8 sessions of acceptance and commitment-based group psychotherapy, and the control group remained on the waiting list for training. Data were collected using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Buysse et al., 1989) and Psychological Distress Scale (Kessler et al., 2002) and analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance in SPSS software.

Findings: The results of this study showed that acceptance and commitment-based group psychotherapy improved the sleep quality (and all its components) and reduced distress of dormitory students (P<0.05).

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, psychologists and therapists can use acceptance and commitment-based group psychotherapy alongside other psychotherapy methods to improve sleep quality and reduce distress.