The Effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-Based Group Counseling on Enhancing Growth Mindset among Student-Athletes at Thailand National Sports University: A Pilot Study
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Abstract
Student-athletes experience intense mental and emotional pressures due to the demands of balancing academic and competitive sports. Growth mindset believing that abilities and skills can be developed through effort is a key psychological factor that supports psychological resilience.
This pilot study aimed to compare growth mindset scores before and after participation in an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) based group counseling program among university student-athletes. The sample consisted of 16 university athletes with low-to-moderate growth mindset scores who were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 8) or a control group (n= 8). The experimental group participated in eight structured ACT group counseling sessions over four weeks, designed to foster psychological flexibility, values-based action, and acceptance of internal experiences, while the control group did not receive the ACT-based group counseling program.
Growth mindset was measured using a researcher-developed scale validated by experts, with data collected at three timepoints: pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 2-week follow-up. Non-parametric analysis revealed significant improvements in the experimental group’s growth mindset scores at post-test and follow-up (p < .05), whereas no significant changes were observed in the control group. The findings indicate that ACT-based group counseling has potential for enhancing growth mindset among university student-athletes and should be further investigated with larger samples and longer follow-up periods.
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