The effect of group counseling program based on systemic psychotherapy approach on university students' separation individuation levels

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of a group intervention program based on systemic family therapy on separation individuation level of university students. For this purpose, the program was implemented to the students who voluntarily joined the groups in weekly sessions for ten weeks in the spring semester of 2014-2015 academic years at Inonu University. The present study was designed in mixed method which contained both quantitative and qualitative research methods simultaneously. Solomon Four Group Design was used in the quantitative part of the research in order to achieve maximum reliability and validity. This study is an experimental research with 4x3 (1st Experimental group, 2nd Experimental group, 1st Control group, 2nd Control group x pre-test, post-test, follow-up testing) factorial design. Case study design was used in the qualitative part of the research. In this part of the study, the effectiveness of the process and quantitative findings were supported or not were tested by examining the sessions deeply. There were four groups in this study. Two of them were experimental groups and the others were control groups. Pre-test was applied to the first experimental and the first control groups but it didn't applied to the second experimental and the second control groups. Totally 30 students including seven students in both experimental groups and eight students in both control groups took part in the study. The Separation Individuation Test of Adolescence was applied to the first experimental group and the first control group. The same scale was applied to all groups (1st Experimental and 2nd Experimental, 1st Control and 2nd Control Groups) as a post-test after finishing the sessions and as a follow-up test after five months. The program prepared on the basis of a systemic approach and ranging from 90 to 120 minutes of each session was implemented to the members of the experimental group for ten weeks. However, there were no applications to the members of the control group. Data were analyzed by using Two-way Between-groups ANOVA and Mixed Between–within Subjects ANOVA or in other words Split-plot ANOVA (/SPANOVA). Tukey post hoc test performed in order to determine which groups differed significantly. According to the findings of the study, group counseling program prepared on the basis of systemic psychotherapy was effective on the decrease in the Separation Individuation Total point, and Separation Anxiety score, Rejection Expectancy score which were sub dimension of the scale on university students. However there were no significant differences between intragroup and intergroup in terms of Restriction Anxiety scores which were other sub-dimensions of the scale. Qualitative findings were divided into three themes under the headings of Separation Anxiety, Rejection Expectancy and Restriction Anxiety. The gains and the awareness of the group members towards the sessions were presented as descriptively in addition to these themes and the sub themes The findings obtained from the research showed that the effect of the program prepared on the basis of a systemic family therapy approach reduced the Separation Anxiety and Rejection Expectancy levels of the university students and this effect was long lasting. But findings showed that the Restriction Anxiety of the participants was going on. In this context, this program would be helpful for the psychological counselors who work with individuals or families, for teacher, for families and for adolescent to provide them to separation of his/her/their parents in a healthy way. Key words: Separation individuation, separation anxiety, rejection expectancy, restriction anxiety