The effect of religious-based cognitive - behavioral therapy on psychological well-being and resilience in students

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of religion based cognitive-behavioral therapy on psychological well-being and resilience of students. 375 students completed Ryff Psychological Well-Being scale (RSPWB) and Connor and Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Among those who scored one standard deviation below the average in Ryff Psychological Well-Being scale (RSPWB), 40 of them were randomly selected. They were homogenized in terms of age, sex, socioeconomic status, lack of physical and mental illness and other variables in the study. Because of the loss of 6 subjects in the experimental group, the control group was matched equally. Then, the participants were divided into two experimental and control groups (each group n = 14). The treatment group was given 10 sessions of 90 minutes Religion-based cognitive-behavioral therapy. During this period, the control group received no intervention.The results showed that there was a significant difference between experimental and control groups in terms of psychological well-being and resilience (p < 0.001). That is, the psychological well-being and resilience in the experimental group significantly increased compared to the pre-test and control group. The results show that the use of psychotherapy, particularly religion-based cognitive-behavioral interventions besides medical treatment increases the psychological well-being and resiliency of the students.