The Effects of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in Well-Being and Perceived Stress in Adolescents with Low Academic Performance During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background:  The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the serious issues which has affected mental health in the world. One of the age groups whose learning processes are highly influenced by the pandemic are adolescents, especially those with low academic performance. Although there have always been problems in the learning process at schools prior to the pandemic, online learning systems have added more challenges to the educational system which results in poor academic performance in this group. Increased stress is among the negative consequence which in turn can affect well-being. Objectives:  The purpose of this study was to determine whether cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) affects well-being and perceived stress in adolescents with low academic performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods:  It was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design and follow-up with a control group. The subjects were 30 adolescents with low academic who were chosen based on by convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group. The research tools were the well-being, perceived stress questionnaires, and CBT. The experimental group received CBT intervention for 10 sessions, each for 120 minutes online, and the control group did not receive any intervention. The data were analyzed by the repeated measures analysis method. Results:  Based on the obtained results, there was a significant effect of CBT on well-being and perceived stress in the experimental group. The finding indicated that CBT led to increasing wellbeing and reducing perceived stress in adolescents with low academic performance (P ≤ 0.05). This effect impact was persisted following 3 months in the experimental group as well. Conclusions:  Considering the effectiveness of mentioned therapy methods on adolescents with low academic performance, it is necessary to apply such a way to improve the well-being of adolescents and relieve their stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, which consequently leads to academic and mental improvement. Moreover, CBT is a feasible and acceptable intervention in adolescents with low academic performance.