Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in a Group Setting to Increase Quality of Life in University Students With Social Media Addictions

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201125.015How to use a DOI?

Keywords

ACT, Indonesia, Quality of Life, Social Media Addiction, University Students

Abstract

University students are one of the largest populations of internet users in Indonesia, and they are especially active on social media. Several theories suggest that people with a low quality of life are highly vulnerable to becoming addicted to social media to avoid real life problems. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a mindfulness-based therapy that may help people by increasing psychological flexibility. This study sought to increase the quality of life of social media-addicted university students using ACT, which was conducted in a group setting once a week for four sessions. The study group consisted of five college students. Samples were gathered using a purposive sampling technique. Measurements were administered using World Health Organization Quality of Life, Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, and AAQ-II. The data were analyzed using a Wilcoxon test. This study indicates that the quality of life in four of five participants gradually increased, although the results were insignificant (z = 0.68, p < 0.05). Social media usage decreased, although the results were also statistically insignificant (z = 0.08, p < 0.05). Review sessions showed that all participants were equipped with skills to increase the quality of life. The group’s cohesiveness helped participants to get more benefits from the therapy through their openness and acceptance with each other. In conclusion, using ACT in a group setting can help to increase the quality of life in students who have social media addiction. Another finding suggests that ACT also can reduce social media usage without first increasing the quality of life. Therefore, ACT can be used on a larger scale in communities with social media addictions, even though future research is still needed.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Shafira Fawzia Ahmad
AU  - Fivi Nurwianti
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/11/27
TI  - Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in a Group Setting to Increase Quality of Life in University Students With Social Media Addictions
BT  - Joint proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Intervention and Applied Psychology (ICIAP 2019) and the 4th Universitas Indonesia Psychology Symposium for Undergraduate Research (UIPSUR 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 180
EP  - 188
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201125.015
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201125.015
ID  - Ahmad2020
ER  -