The Mindful Way Through the Semester: An Investigation of the Effectiveness of an Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapy Program on Psychological Wellness in First-Year Students.
One 90-minute acceptance workshop early in the term lowers depression and boosts psychological flexibility in first-year students.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers ran a 90-minute acceptance workshop for first-year college students.
Half the students got the workshop right away. The other half waited.
Everyone filled out mood and acceptance surveys before and after.
What they found
One workshop cut depression scores and raised psychological acceptance.
The wait-list group did not change.
A single class-period was enough to shift mood.
How this fits with other research
Hattier et al. (2011) did a similar 2-hour workshop, but they tracked exam scores instead of mood. Both studies show brief ABBT works for students.
Morrison et al. (2017) later moved the same ideas online. Their web program also lowered depression, so live or digital both help.
Paliliunas et al. (2018) stretched the dose to six weekly sessions for grad students. Longer training gave small academic gains, but B et al. prove one shot still moves the needle for freshmen.
McConachie et al. (2014) used the same one-day workshop format with disability support staff. Staff distress dropped 30%, matching the student results. The brief model works across ages and roles.
Why it matters
You can slip a 90-minute acceptance module into freshman orientation or staff in-service. No extra staff, no homework, no cost. Mood and acceptance improve right away, so students stay engaged and staff burn out less. Try it at your next training day.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add a single-session acceptance exercise to your next student or staff meeting and track mood before and after.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
First-year students in higher education deal with an increasing number of mental health issues. Cost-effective and time-efficient programs that ease transitions and reduce risk of depression are needed. To date, programs informed by both cognitive-behavioral and acceptance-based-behavioral therapy (ABBT) approaches have produced some positive outcomes, but methodological limitations limit their utility. The aim of the present study was to address some of these limitations, by developing and preliminary testing the efficacy of a one-session ABBT intervention with first-year undergraduates and first-year law students. Ninety-eight first-year students were randomly assigned to receive either a single-session 90-min ABBT workshop within their first month of school or to a waitlist control condition. Students who received the intervention reported significantly less depression and more acceptance. Moreover, increase in acceptance over the course of the semester was associated with reductions in depression. Implications of these findings for future interventions are discussed.
Behavior modification, 2014 · doi:10.1177/0145445513520218