The effects of a cognitive flexibility education program on high school students' cognitive flexibility, perceived stress levels and coping styles

The general aim of this study was to examine the effects and long-term sustainability of the Cognitive Flexibility Psycho-Educational Program, which was developed by the researcher based on cognitive behavior theories, on high school students' cognitive flexibility, perceived stress levels and coping styles. The twelve-session Cognitive Flexibility Psycho-Educational Program was applied to an experimental group of high-school students with the aim to improve their cognitive flexibility. The program was implemented over the course of twelve weeks with each session lasting about 50 minutes. The control group hasn't attended any program. The quantitative data of the study was collected using the Cognitive Flexibility Scale, which was developed by Martin and Rubin (1995), the Perceived Stress Scale developed by Cohen, Kamarck and Mermelstein (1983) and the Coping Styles Inventory which was developed by Şahin and Durak based on the Methods of Coping Inventory developed by Folkman and Lazarus (1980). In the process of this study, the researcher adapted the reliability and validity studies of the Cognitive Flexibility Scale to the context of high school students as opposed to university students. The given scales and inventories were applied to both the control and experimental group as a pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The fifteen students in the experimental group were selected based on their scores from these scales. The quantitative data of the study was analyzed with SPSS 23. The qualitative data of the study was obtained using a semi-structured General Assessment Form, which was developed by the researcher. Content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. A post-test was applied to the experimental group one week following the completion of the program and a follow-up test was applied ten weeks after that. The qualitative data was collected two weeks after program completion. The quantitative data was analyzed using the Mann Whitney U Test and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. According to result of qualitative and quantitative analysis, the students in the experimental group were found to possess higher level of cognitive flexibility levels and to be better at using positive coping approaches, such as self-confidence and optimism, than the students in the control group. Also, their perceived stress levels and usage of the helpless approach decreased compared to the control group. The results of the follow-up test revealed that the effects of the program dissipated over time. Additionally, the applied program was not effective in the seeking social support and submissive approaches. The study findings suggest that the Cognitive Flexibility Psycho-Educational Program ultimately increased students' cognitive flexibility levels and positive coping strategy usage while it was only partially influential on decreasing their perceived stress and specific negative coping strategy usage in the short-term. Key Words: Cognitive flexibility, perceived stress, coping styles