Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in Mitigating Academic Procrastination and its Moderating Factors among nursing students

Objective. To assess the effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on academic procrastination and its moderating factors among nursing students. Methods. True experimental pre-test and post-test research design was adopted. The setting comprised of private nursing colleges of Punjab, India. A screening was done among 209 nursing students, 43 (20.57%) were procrastinators, which were assigned randomly to the intervention (n=19) and control (n=24) groups. The intervention was administered during six weeks, consisting of weekly one-hour modules that focused on the core components of ACT (Present Moment Contact, Defusion, Acceptance, Self as Context, Values, and: Commitment to Action). The effect of the intervention was measured after 6th week through the scales: (i) Procrastination assessment Scale, (ii) Acceptance and action questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) and (iii) Student time management scale (STMS). A session of ACT was scheduled for the control group following the post-test. Study has been registered under Clinical Trail Registry of India (REF/2022/12/061719). Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results. Post intervention assessment after 6 weeks revealed reduction in academic procrastination among the nursing students (mean difference -8.61, Standard error 0.35, p-value=0.01). Intervention also led to improvement in time management skills (mean difference 9.98, Standard error 0.32, p-value=0.001). Additionally, intervention results in improving psychological flexibility among the nursing students (mean difference -4.72, Standard error 0.49, p-value=0.02). Conclusion. The study found ACT can reduce academic procrastination, and in the clinical setting, can and improve the time management, psychological flexibility among nursing students.