Integrating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Islamic Spiritual Counseling to Enhance University Students' Self-Efficacy: A Group Counseling Intervention Study

Abstract

This study examines the effectiveness of integrating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with Islamic Spiritual Counseling in a group counseling format to enhance university students' self-efficacy. The intervention combines ACT principles, including acceptance, cognitive defusion, mindfulness, values clarification, and committed action, with Islamic values such as tawakal, sabar, syukur, muhasabah, and istiqamah to strengthen students' psychological flexibility and spiritual resilience. A quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design was used involving 20 university students selected through purposive sampling, divided into an experimental group (n = 10) and a control group (n = 10). Data were collected using a self-efficacy scale through pretest and posttest and analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. Results showed a significant improvement in the experimental group, with mean scores increasing from 62.40% to 84.10%, while the control group showed minimal change from 61.80% to 63.20%. The findings confirm that the integrated intervention effectively enhances students' self-efficacy.