THE EFFECTIVENESS OF WEB-BASED ACCEPTANCE COMMITMENT THERAPY TO REDUCE EXPERIENTIAL AVOIDANCE IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

Students are vulnerable to psychological distress. However, there are several problems that prevent students from getting psychological intervention, namely the limited number of mental health practitioners, limited time, symptoms of certain psychological problems, and stigma. Web-based acceptance commitment therapy (ACT) can be an alternative to overcome these problems. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of web-based ACT to reduce experiential avoidance in students who experience Psychological Distress The website used as the intervention medium is SceLe-UI. There were 38 participants who take part in the intervention. However, there were only 12 participants with complete data that could be processed to test the effectiveness of the intervention. The measuring instruments used are Acceptance and Action Questionnaire II (AAQ-II), White bear suppression inventory (WBSI) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-42).. Statistical analysis in the form of Friedman test and Wilcoxon test showed that web-based ACT was effective in reducing psychological distress and experiential avoidance significantly. The limitations of the study are explained in the discussion section.