Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anger, Irritability, and Aggression in Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults: A Systematic Review of Intervention Studies
Abstract
The onset of childhood disruptive behaviors is one of the most common presenting difficulties to clinics worldwide. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has shown to be effective in the reduction of anger and aggression among adults, however to date there has been no systematic review that has examined the effectiveness of ACT in addressing anger and aggression among children, adolescents, and young adults. The current systematic review aimed to evaluate the methodological standing and effectiveness of the peer-reviewed literature of ACT on anger and aggression for this population. PsycINFO, PubMed, and MEDLINE databases were searched systematically in June 2022 to identify studies in English published on the use of ACT for anger and aggression in children, adolescents, and young adults. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria with a combined sample of 305 participants across the interventions. The most common outcome measures used were self-report ratings of anger among participants. Studies were characterized by poor methodological rigor and findings were mixed as regards the effectiveness of ACT in addressing anger and aggression in this population. Some evidence suggests that group ACT may be effective in reducing self-report measures of anger, but no firm conclusions can be drawn from the extant literature due to the heterogeneous nature of the studies, and limited information about ACT protocols and treatment delivery. Further higher-powered studies comparing ACT to treatment as usual or waitlist are needed to clarify what ACT may add as a treatment to anger and aggression in this population.
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ACT and other treatments that integrate mindfulness and acceptance practices can generate more flexible and adaptive behavioral repertoires in parents of children with a variety of presenting challenges, including children with autism, oppositional behavior, chronic health conditions, and separation anxiety.
“There is growing evidence that ACT and other treatments that integrate mindfulness and acceptance practices [29] can generate more flexible and adaptive behavioral repertoires in parents of children with a variety of presenting challenges [30], including children with autism [31,32], oppositional behavior [33], chronic health conditions [34,35,36], and separation anxiety [37].”
From A Qualitative Study of Participant Feedback on an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Group-Based Intervention for Parents of Youth with Anxiety Disorders. (2026) · cites this paper as [30]
Previous research consistently shows the effectiveness of ACT in managing the core components of HB, including anger, depression, somatic symptoms, and emotional distress.
“Previous research consistently shows the effectiveness of ACT in managing the core components of HB, including anger, depression, somatic symptoms, and emotional distress [6, 23-27].”
From User Experience and Clinical Utility of a Smartphone-Based Application for Hwa-Byung Treatment: a protocol for a single-arm prospective pilot study. (2026) · cites this paper as [24]
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- Authors
- Byrne, G., & Cullen, C.
- Affiliations
- HSE Community Healthcare East, Dublin, Ireland
- University College Dublin (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Byrne, Gary
- Venue
- Trauma, Violence, & Abuse
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2023-05-02
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 935-946
- ISSN
- 1524-8380 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-8324
- OpenAlex
- W4367668583
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4
- FWCI
- 0.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trauma Violence & Abuse (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Behavioral and Psychological Studies
- Keywords
- acceptance and commitment therapy, anger, irritability, aggression, children, adolescents, young adults, disruptive behavior, group therapy, treatment effectiveness, methodological quality
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Aggression, Anger, Child, Humans, Irritable Mood, Young Adult, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
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