Intervening Research On Effect Of Group Counseling On High School Freshmen’s Loneliness

Loneliness is a subjective psychological maladjustment and is one of the common psychological problems among middle school students. Long-term or severe loneliness experience exerts certain influence on middle school students’ mental health, academic level and ability to adapt to life. After their entering high school, freshmen in senior high school experience learning pressure and new environment, they thus are more likely to be at high risk of loneliness. According to previous studies, few research or intervention is conducted concerning high school freshmen’s loneliness status. Hence, this study aims to do a related research on loneliness and academic achievement and mental health for high school freshmen. Screening of some high-loneliness individuals to do group counseling intervention, was aimed at exploring effective intervention ways for loneliness, thereby reducing the level of a high school freshmen’s loneliness, promoting their physical and mental health.In study 1, loneliness status among 372 high school freshmen was investigated by a questionnaire survey. The results showed that high school freshmen had higher loneliness experience and there were no significant gender differences. Loneliness was significantly associated with mental health and its each factor. The experienced loneliness and mental health were not significantly associated with students’academic achievement.In study 2, twenty freshmen with high loneliness were investigated as experimental subjects, ten of them were intervened with group counseling. Comparing the results among the experimental group and the control group, we found that the effect of group counseling for loneliness intervention was significant. Group counseling therapy factor, including group cohesion, imitation, catharsis, hope reshaping and universality discovery, had a positive therapeutic effect on reducing loneliness. A reasonable group counseling program is the basic premise to reduce loneliness, and a good group atmosphere is the fundamental guarantee to reduce loneliness. Members in group counseling can improve students’ social skills, increase self-efficacy and interpersonal self-confidence in the process of interpersonal learning, reduce their levels of loneliness and improve their mental health.The following conclusions were drawn in the present study:(1) The levels of loneliness among high school freshmen were generally high and there were no significant gender differences.(2) The levels of students’loneliness were negatively related to their mental health, but its relationship with their academic achievement was not found to be significant.(3) The effect of group counseling on freshmen’s levels of loneliness was remarkable. Specifically, it could effectively reduce the levels of loneliness among high school students and improve their mental health.(4) This group counseling program "Sunflower Program" for individual with higher loneliness was reasonable and effective.