The Effects of Character Strengths-based, Solution-focused Group Counseling Program on Self-determination of Elementary School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop character strengths-based, solution-focused group counseling program for elementary school students and verify its effects on their self-determination. To verify effects of the program, 20 elementary school students in grade 4 and 5 were selected and assigned to the experimental group and the control group of 10 students, respectively, after conducting the homogeneity test, 10 students in the experimental group participated in the program twice a week for 50 minutes for a total of 10 sessions. The results were evaluated by comparing changes in the experimental group and the control group before and after the program and changes expected in the future to each group through repeated measures ANOVA using SPSS 28.0. The results are as follows: First, character strengths-based, solution-focused group counseling program had significant effects on self-determination of elementary school students. Second, character strengths-based, solution-focused group counseling program had significant effects on all the subfactors of self-determination, which are autonomy, competence, and relationship. Therefore, this study is significant as an empirical study that tried character strengths-based, solution-focused method in an integrated approach to develop a program for elementary school students and verified the effects. In addition, the study is significant in that it can be used as a fundamental reference for constituting a program for the school site and counseling field through verification of effects on autonomy, competence, and relationship, which are subfactors of self-determination.