The Efficacy of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy on Psychological Well-being and Resilience of Students with Depressive Syndrome

Adolescents, because they are of sensitive ages, may undergo many psychological and physical changes that, if left unchecked, can lead to irreparable problems. In this regard, the present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy on the psychological well-being and resilience of students with depressive syndrome.

The method of the present study was quasi-experimental and its design was pretest-posttest with a control group. The statistical population of the study included first-grade high school students in the second district of Rasht in the second semester of 2021-2022. The study sample consisted of 30 students who were selected using the available sampling method and randomly placed in experimental and control groups. The collection tools included Depression Inventory (Beck, 1996), Psychological Well-being (Ryff, 1989), and Resilience Questionnaire (Connor & Davidson, 2003). The experimental group received eight sessions of 90-minute cognitive-behavioral group therapy with Comfrey and Jacqueline (1995) but the control group did not receive any intervention. Finally, the data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance.

The results showed that cognitive-behavioral therapy significantly increases autonomy (19.41), environmental mastery (57.46), personal growth (90.87), positive relations with others (64.23), and purpose in life. (51.53), self-acceptance (46.54) and resilience (76.01) Students with depressive syndrome (P <0.01).

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that group cognitive-behavioral therapy with behavioral activation has been able to increase psychological well-being and resilience. Since depression can affect the academic performance of students, it is necessary to do early interventions in this field.