The impact of acceptance and commitment therapy on college students’ suicidal ideations, a tendency to self-harm, and existential anxiety

Individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts and self-harming behaviors often struggle with various mental health, social, family, and personal challenges. Existential anxiety or meaninglessness may contribute to these thoughts and behaviors. The current study aims to examine the impact of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on reducing existential anxiety and the propensity for self-harming behaviors and suicidal ideations among students. The present study was quasi-experimental, and its research design was pre-test-post-test with a control group. The statistical population of the research consisted of the students of Hamedan Azad University in 2022. The convenience sampling method was used to select the sample. After the Self-Harm Inventory (1998), Lawrence Good’s Preliminary Measure of Existential Anxiety (1974), and Beck’s Scale-for-Suicidal-Ideation (1961) were implemented among the statistical population of the research. The essential data was collected and analyzed using SPSS-26 software. Sixteen individuals with scores above the cut-off point were chosen and randomly divided into two groups of eight people each: An intervention group and a control group. The intervention group was exposed to the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy group for eight sessions. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy significantly reduced existential anxiety (P ≤ 0.001), self-harming tendencies (P ≤ 0.001), and suicidal ideations (P ≤ 0.001). The study’s findings suggest that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is essential in reducing suicidal ideations, self-harm tendencies, and existential anxiety. As a result, it effectively promotes mental health and fosters community well-being.