Papers by Thora Magnusdottir
Journal of Child and Family Studies, Feb 7, 2014
Depression, anxiety and stress are common problems among adolescents. Teaching young people copin... more Depression, anxiety and stress are common problems among adolescents. Teaching young people coping strategies in school-based intervention programs is one promising approach hoped to remedy the negative consequences of distress in adolescence. The aim of the two pilot studies was to examine the effect of a brief intervention based on the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on depressive symptomatology (Australian study, N = 66) and stress (Swedish study, N = 32) among adolescents screened for psychosocial problems in school settings. In both studies, subjects were assigned to receive the ACT-groupintervention, or a control intervention featuring individual support from the school health care. The Australian study was a planned comparison, with random allocation for girls, plus one replication of a boys group. The Swedish study used a randomized controlled design. The ACT-intervention was an 8-session manualized group program. The Australian study showed significant reductions in depressive symptoms with a large effect, and significant reductions in psychological inflexibility with a medium effect when compared to the control group who received standard care. In the Swedish study, the ACT-intervention group, when compared to the control group, reported significantly lower levels of stress with a large effect size, and marginally significant decrease of anxiety, and marginally significant increased mindfulness skills. Taken together, the ACT-intervention seems to be a promising intervention for reducing stress and depressive symptoms among young adolescents in school and should be tested in full-sized studies. Limitations of these two pilots include small samples.
Att hitta preventiva metoder for att motverka ungdomars psykiska ohalsa ar ett angelaget forsknin... more Att hitta preventiva metoder for att motverka ungdomars psykiska ohalsa ar ett angelaget forskningsomrade, bade sett till manskligt lidande for individen och ur ett samhallsekonomiskt perspektiv. F ...
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Papers by Thora Magnusdottir