E-ISSN : 2733-4538
The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of a cognitive defusion intervention for undergraduates with de pressive symptoms. Forty-two undergraduates who showed mild or more severe depression were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: cognitive defusion (n= 15), distraction (n= 15), or a non-treatment control (n= 12). The two active inter ventions (cognitive defusion and distraction interventions) consisted of three weekly 60- or 90-minute-long sessions. The cognitive defusion intervention group showed significantly greater reductions in the believability of negative automatic thoughts than did the distraction intervention and control groups. Also, the cognitive defusion intervention group showed greater reductions in psychological inflexibility and rumination and greater increases in decentering than the control group. These improvements were maintained at a 2-week follow-up. Effect size analyses indicated that the cognitive defusion inter vention group showed larger effect sizes for depressive symptoms and frequency of negative automatic thoughts than the dis traction or control groups. In conclusion, these results suggest that cognitive defusion intervention is an effective treatment for undergraduates with depressive symptoms. Lastly, the implications and limitations of this study are discussed.
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