Psychological Intervention for 555 Adolescents in High Risk Behaviors: the Contrast of Effects from the result of Individual and Group Counseling

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2014, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1) : 225-231.

PDF(444 KB)
PDF(444 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2014, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1) : 225-231.

Psychological Intervention for 555 Adolescents in High Risk Behaviors: the Contrast of Effects from the result of Individual and Group Counseling

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Abstract

Nowadays, high risk behaviors in adolescents are more and more critical and serious. However, the relative studies were most carried out to investigate the ratio of these behaviors. In the field of psychological intervention, there are few studies about the adolescents’ high risk behaviors. Accordingly, it is very important and valuable to conduct psychological intervention for the group of adolescents in high risk behaviors in accordance with individual situations. In this study, we worked out and implemented a practicable program which consist of structured individual counseling and group counseling to help high risk adolescents.. The aim of this research is to assess the effectiveness of the conseling intervention both in the end of the program instantly and six months later. We used the Adolescent Health related Risky Behavior Inventory (AHRBI) and the Mental Health Scale for secondary School Students(MHS-SSS) to choose subjects from 16 vocational schools in Wuhan and Jingzhou. Then 899 qualified students were screened from 7439 students. A sample of 555 adolescents was volunteered to participate this study. Their ages ranged from 14 to 19 years old (averaged age=16.4). These students were randomly assigned to three groups: (1) 207 in individual counseling group, (2) 139 in group counseling group, (3) 209 in control group. To assessment the effect of the intervention, we asked all the subjects to complete AHRBI, MHS-SSS, The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) before and after the counseling, as well as six months later. The participants in group 1 had receive individual counseling for 3 times at weekly intervals. Each time lasted about 50 minutes. While participants in group 2 had received group counseling for 6 times, twice a week. Each time lasted about 90 minutes. The control group had no intervention. All interventions were focused on the topics of personality, family, study, emotion, relationship and sexual problems. As a result, after psychological intervention, the scores of the AHRBI, CES-D, and SAS of the students in individual counseling group became significantly lower than the control group(p<0.01), while the scores of the MHS-SSS became significantly higher(p<0.01). It showed that the levels of risk behaviors, mental health, depression and anxiety had all improved markedly. Moreover, the improvements lasted stably six months later. However, there was only a measurable reduction in students’ depression for group counseling(p<0.05). And there were no improvements in other aspects of group counseling students. It’s suggested that the psychological intervention for adolescents at high risk behaviors should be designed well. Specifically, individual counseling should be considered as the first and the main form of intervention, together with group counseling as supplementary form of intervention.

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risk behaviors / adolescents / individual counseling / group counseling

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Psychological Intervention for 555 Adolescents in High Risk Behaviors: the Contrast of Effects from the result of Individual and Group Counseling[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2014, 37(1): 225-231
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