İnvestigation of the effect of psycho-education program based on positive psychology approach on adolescents' risky behaviors and psychological flexibility

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of the Positive Psychology Approach Based Psycho Educational Program (PPAB-PEP) on the risky behaviors and psychological flexibility of adolescents. The convergent parallel design from mixed method study designs was used in the study. The 2x3 factorial design was also used in the quantitative stage of the study and the descriptive phenomenology approach in the qualitative stage. The study group consisted of 26 adolescents (experimental group=13, control group=13) determined by the simultaneous/nested sampling method. The ages of the adolescents range between 14-17, with a mean age of 15.35 (Sd= 1.09). The study data were obtained by using quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative data of the study were collected with the Risk Behaviors Scale (RBS) and the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory Short Form (MPFI-SF), which was adapted into Turkish within the scope of this study. The qualitative data were obtained by conducting individual interviews with adolescents after the experimental procedure. The t-test, Two-Factor ANOVA for Mixed Measures, Bonferroni Test, Mann Whitney U Test, and Friedman Test were used in the analysis of the quantitative data. The Content Analysis Method was used in the analysis of the qualitative data. When the quantitative findings that were obtained in the study were examined, it was found that PPAB-PEP significantly decreased adolescents' RBS total, antisocial behavior, and suicidal tendency sub-dimension and psychological inflexibility scores, increased psychological flexibility scores, and this effect continued in the follow-up measurements three months later. On the other hand, it was also found that PPAB-PEP did not have significant effects on reducing adolescents' RBS alcohol use, smoking, eating habits and school dropout sub-dimension scores. When the qualitative findings were examined, it was seen that PPAB-PEP had positive effects on reducing the risky behaviors of adolescents and increasing their psychological flexibility levels. It has been determined that the quantitative and qualitative findings obtained to evaluate the effectiveness of PPAB-PEP support each other.