Effect of positive therapy on self-harm thoughts and psychological well-being in students’ dissolution of romantic relationships

Adolescence is a part of human life in which people face a set of transformational obstacles and challenges. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of positive therapy on self-harming thoughts and psychological well-being in students with dissolved romantic relationships. The present study was semi-experimental research with pre-test, post-test and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of this study consisted of all high school students with the dissolution of romantic relationships history referred to counseling centers in Sari in 2021, from which 30 students with dissolved romantic relationships were selected by convenient sampling method and randomly assigned in two groups (15 participants in each group). Participants completed the self-harm questionnaire and the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Questionnaire in three rounds: pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. The experimental group received 8 sessions of positive treatment and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were analyzed using the repeated measure analysis of variance method with SPSS.22 software. The findings of this study shows that positive therapy was effective on self-harming thoughts (F=207.86, P<0.001) and psychological well-being (F=127.69, P<0.001) in students with dissolved romantic relationships. It can be concluded that positive therapy reduced self-harming and suicidal thoughts and increased psychological well-being in students with dissolved romantic relationships.