The effect of solution focused group counseling on rumination and learned helplessness

The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of solution focused group counseling on the rumination and learned helplessness levels of high school students. For this purpose of the research, an 6-sessions solution focused group counseling program for high school students were developed. The pilot study of the program was conducted with 8 students and the sessions were evaluated in the context of duration, content and activities and the final form of the program was prepared. After the pilot study, 10th and 11th grade students (n = 641) were applied the Rumination Scale and the Learned Helplessness Scale. Students scoring over a standard deviation from the mean were determined from both measurement tools (n = 120). These students were interviewed individually and were generally informed about the study. 10 students from each school who want to participate voluntarily in the study were determined. Schools were assigned to the experimental, control, and placebo groups impartially. In the research, the effectiveness of the program was tested using 3 (experiment, control, placebo) x 3 (pre-test, post-test, follow-up test) mixed pattern. With the subjects in the experimental group, solution focused group counseling sessions were conducted; no application was made to the subjects in the control groups, and vocational guidance activities were carried out with the subjects in the placebo groups in parallel with the experimental groups. After the sessions were completed, the Rumination Scale and the Learned Helplessness Scale were applied to the subjects in the experimental, control and placebo groups. A month after the post-test application, the scales were applied again to the subjects in the experimental, control and placebo groups. Multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) analysis was used to analyze the data. In order to use this analysis that the assumptions of the number of participants in the groups are equal or close to each other, univariate normality and multivariate normality, linearity count, covariance, and multiple connection problems were checked. The findings obtained from the study show that the students in the experimental group who participated in the solution focused group counseling program had a statistically significant decrease in the mean scores of the Rumination Scale and the Learned Helplessness Scale compared to the students in the placebo and control group, and this decrease was also maintained in the follow-up tests. As a result, it was found that solution focused group counseling developed to reduce rumination and learned helplessness is effective. Accordingly, new studies can be conducted to expand the program and to test its effectiveness by moving it online.