Abstract
Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate whether mindful meditation programs conducted in ACT(Acceptance &Commitment Therapy) and MBCT(Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) were effective in changing in depression and anxiety. Methods : In order to achieve this, we have performed meta-analysis of the studies on ACT and MBCT among studies published in the national academic journals, master thesis, and doctoral thesis. Dependent variables were limited to depressive and anxiety symptoms. By using meta analysis method, we retrieved journal articles published in Korea between 2009 and 2015 using keyword searches of electronic databases. Result : The results of the analysis showed that both ACT and MBCT had a significant effect on reducing depressive symptoms (Hedges' g = -0.71, p < 0.01). Both also had a significant effect on reducing anxiety symptoms (Hedges' g = -1.134, p < 0.01). These results imply that both ACT and MBCT interventions can be useful interventions for both depressive and anxiety symptoms. In the case of interventions for depressive symptoms, the college student group showed better results than the adult group. In addition, the ACT program had a stronger effect on reducing depressive symptoms than the MBCT program. In the case of interventions for anxiety symptoms, the mixed gender group showed better results than the female group. Conclusion : The results showed significant differences with regard to the following factors: participant gender, target participants, mindfulness technique availability, session number, and session duration.