Effectiveness of Group Training of Transactional Analysis (TA) on Distress Tolerance and Social Problem Solving of Delinquent Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of group training of transactional analysis on distress tolerance and social problem solvingof delinquent adolescents.

The study was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest and control group and follow-up period. The statistical population consisted of delinquent male adolescents who were resident in Ahwaz's correction and rehabilitation center. Participants included 30 people who were selected by purposeful sampling method. They were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups and respond to the Distress Tolerance Scale (Simons & Gaher, 2005) and the Social Problem Solving Inventory- Short Form (D’Zurilla et al., 2002). The experimental group received 10 90-minute sessions of transactional analysis sessions. After therapeutic interventions and two months later, both groups were evaluated with the research questionnaires. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance with repeated measures.

The results showed that group training of transactional analysis has a significant effect on increased distress tolerance (p< 0.01) and constructive social problem solving (p< 0.05) and reduced unconstructive social problem solving (p< 0.01) of delinquent adolescents.

The findings suggested the effectiveness of group training of transactional analysis on increased distress tolerance and improved social problem-solving in delinquent adolescents.