Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for children and adolescents with physical health concerns

•Most studies on ACT for youths concern chronic pain, showing promising results.•Psychological flexibility is a central change process in treatment.•Recent studies suggest the utility of ACT-based parental interventions.•Adequate instruments exist to assess ACT-specific variables in patients and parents.•More studies to explore the utility of ACT for physical concerns are urgently needed.

Purpose of reviewThe aim of this paper is to provide an overview of research on ACT for youths with physical concerns.FindingsStudies were identified by searches in PubMed and PsychInfo and comprised correlational designs as well as evaluations of treatment outcome, change processes, parental interventions, and ACT-measurements. Study samples included pain, sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis, and acquired brain injuries.SummaryThe majority of studies are conducted on patients with chronic pain, and although ACT appears promising more studies are needed to evaluate the effects of treatment. Also, analyses of change processes suggest the importance of psychological flexibility, but further research to explore moderators and mediators of change with pediatric patients are warranted to clarify how this treatment works and for whom. Furthermore, more research is needed to explore the utility of this approach in other areas than chronic pain.