Abstract:

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) based psychoeducation program on test anxiety of high school senior students and compare the effectiveness of traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Study was conducted in a weak experimental design. Short Symptom Inventory, Test Anxiety Inventory, Avoidance and Fusion Scale Youth-8 and Automatic Thoughts Scale were used as data collection tools. Participants meeting the inclusion criteria were assigned to three groups as ACT (11 student), CBT (11 student) and control (11 student) group. ACT group received seven session and CBT group received eight session psychoeducation intervention for seven-week; control group received no intervention. The results of the study showed that; the mean scores of the subjects in the ACT, CBT and control groups obtained from the TAI pre-test and post-test measurements differ significantly [F(2-30) = 9.123; p<.05]; both ACT and CBT are effective in reducing students' test anxiety (qACT=4.776, q>3.49; qCBT =8.409, q>3.49; qControl =.123, q<3.49; p<.05).; and this effect maintained at one and three month follow up [ACT: x2(sd=2, n=8) = 2000; CBT: x2(sd=2, n=9)= 2.889; Control: x2(sd=2, n=7) = 3.185; p>.05].. However, it was seen there was a significant decrease in avoidance and cognitive fusion levels of the participants of the ACT group and significant decrease in automatic thought levels of subjects in the CBT group. Although this study does not allow establishing strong cause and effect relationships due to its weak experimental design, as a result, it provides important data that ACT, which is a new approach compared to traditional CBT, is an effective approach that can be used in reducing students' test anxiety.

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