Positive Psychology Group Counseling Intervention On Pupils Depressive Symptoms

Studies have shown that positive psychology intervention (PPI) fits for prevention of depression in children and adolescence, but the specific therapeutic factor in PPI is yet to be verified. Mazzucchelli et al.(2010) pointed out that valued and pleasant actions can improve activity level and reduce depression; moreover, Seligman et al.(2005) found that results of PPI was fully mediated by self-sustained activities. It is reasonable to assume that PPI increases valued actions and is therefore effective, in other words, level of strength use mediates the effect of PPI. Present study recruited400pupils (accept PPI) as experimental and163pupils (wait and see) as control group, and tested for their depressive affects (using Children Depression Inventory) and strength use for3times (pretest, posttest, and a test after3months), then the data was analyzed by hierarchical linear model. Results show that:1. PPI can significantly reduce pupils’ depression (p<0.01);2.the relationship of PPI and depression was partially mediated by strength use, suggesting that strength use is one of the specific therapeutic factors for PPI;3. Our PPI program shows low significance in promoting strength use in follow-up, which needs improvement in the future.