University of Twente Student Theses

Mental health promotion door “voluit leven” : een gerandomiseerde, gecontroleerde studie naar het effect van acceptance and commitment therapy and mindfulness op angstklachten.

Mandersloot, S.M. (2012) Mental health promotion door “voluit leven” : een gerandomiseerde, gecontroleerde studie naar het effect van acceptance and commitment therapy and mindfulness op angstklachten.

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Abstract:	Background: In the Netherlands, mental disorders like anxiety and major depression are highly prevalent. Apart from the ailments of disease and the loss of quality of life, the consequences of these anxiety disorders are also the high cost of care and sickness absence. In spite of progress made with regard to treatment of mental disorders over the last few years, the results are still insufficient for the national health care. Over the past few years much research has been conducted on preventive intervention of mental disorders. A prevention intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is “Living to the full”. The basic principle of ACT is increasing psychological flexibility rather than focusing on the elimination of psychological complaints. This study examined the effectiveness of the online intervention “Living to the full” on reducing anxiety and increasing psychological flexibility and mindfulness. Methods: 228 participants with mild to medium mental symptoms but without psychopathology were assigned into the conditions: (1) the preventive online course “Living to the full” (n = 77), (2) the minimal intervention the course “Expressive writing” (n = 64) and (3) a waiting list (n = 87). The participants completed measures before the intervention as well as after the intervention to assess anxiety symptoms (HADS-A), psychological flexibility (AAQ-II) and mindfulness (FFMQ-SF). Results: In comparison with control- and waiting-list groups, the intervention group showed fewer anxiety symptoms and higher levels of psychological flexibility and mindfulness after participating in the online course. Small and medium effect sizes were found in this study. Mediational analysis showed that a decrease in anxiety complaints is mediated by psychological flexibility. Conclusion: This study shows that the preventive online course “Living to the full” is appropriate for highly-educated Dutch working women to reduce their fear complaints. Futhermore, this study demonstrates that the online course can increase the psychological flexibility and mindfulness for people with mild to moderate mental disorders. Future research will be necessary to verify that the course is also effective in reducing anxiety symptoms of lower educated people, men, adolescents, elderly people and foreigners in the Dutch population.
Item Type:	Essay (Master)
Faculty:	BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:	77 psychology
Programme:	Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/62471
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