An Intervening Study Of Narrative Group Counseling On College Students With Social Anxiety

Background and objective of the studySocial anxiety is one of the most common psychological problems among college students.If it is not corrected or improved,it may become a social anxiety disorder,which will seriously affect the mental health and academic life of college students.In recent years,the research on early intervention in social anxiety has received more and more attention.As one of the representatives of the postmodern psychological school,narrative therapy emphasizes the problem externalization,reshaping the life story,guiding the individuals to recover the strengths and resources to overcome the problems,and plays an important role in psychological counseling.Therefore,this study intends to use narrative group counseling to intervene social anxiety students and evaluate the effects of narrative group counseling and supportive group counseling in various aspects,and explore the application value of narrative group counseling in social anxiety.Subjects and MethodsIn this study,the "communicative anxiety scale ≥48 points and willingness to participate in groups" was adopted as the criteria for inclusion.Combined with interview results,60 freshman students with social anxiety were included in the study.Then the quasi-experimental method was used to set the narrative counseling group(n=20),support counseling group(n=21)and blank control group(n=19).Quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis are used to evaluate the effectiveness of group counseling.Fistly,quantitative analysis is that subjective self-evaluation,behavioral and physiological measures of anxiety were performed for all subjects before the intervention,after the intervention,and 1 month later.In addition,the study cited a group effect evaluation method of the innovative moment,in conjunction with the<Therapeutic Factors Inventory>and the<Feedback questionnaire of Group>to perform qualitative analysis.The quantitative evaluation includes:(1)Subjective self-assessment included:three self-assessment scales of<Interaction Anxiousness>,<Self-Identity>and<Positive Psychological capital>,and current anxiety level,heart rate,blush level,sweating degree of palms and shortness of breath 5 items of self-rating physiological awakening;(2)Behavior of other-evaluation was:in the speech task process,the rater used the<Anxiety Behavior Assessment Questionnaire>to assess the subject’s anxiety level;(3)The objective physiological indicators were:under the speech task,the subject’s skin power,heart rate fluctuation and skin temperature were collected.Results1.Results of the quantitative research:(1)From the perspective of the self-assessment scales,compared with the blank group,the degree of improvement of social anxiety symptoms in the narrative and support groups did not reach a statistically significant level(P>0.05),but from the numerical perspective,the post-test value-added of the narrative group,support group,and blank group was(-10.90±8.28),(-8.81 ±7.49),and(-5.84±7.68),respectively.So the social anxiety of the members receiving group counseling the level of decline was higher.And the self-identity and positive psychological capital was significantly increased after intervention in narrative groups and support groups(P<0.05).After 1 month,the tracking improvement of the self-efficacy factor of positive psychological capital in the intervention group was still significantly higher than that of the blank control group(P<0.05).(2)From the perspective of the self-rating physiological awakening,after the intervention,the degree of blushing during making a speech of the narrative and support groups was significantly lower than that of the blank group(P<0.05).And intra-group comparison showed that the subjective palm sweating degree of the narrative group in the post-testing was significantly decreased(P<0.05),while the degree of subjective blush of the support group and the shortness of breath of the blank group in the post-test was significantly higher(P<0.05).(3)From the perspective of the objective physiological indicators,compared with the pretests,the skin conduction value of making a speech with 30s and 3min after the narrative group counseling were significantly decreased,respectively(P<0.05).However,there was no significant decrease in the support group and the blank control group.2.Results of the qualitative research:(1)The average scores of the therapeutic factors in the middle and late groups were all greater than 4 points.The reshaped-hope factor of the narrative group was higher than the support group,and the score of the safety expression factor of supportive group was higher than that of the narrative group.The social learning factor in later period of the narrative group was significantly increased compared with the score in the middle period(P<0.05),while there was no significant change in the social learning factor of the support group(P>0.05).(2)The percent of innovative moments for the narrative counseling group accounted for 3.4%of the total conversation."Reflection" was the most frequent innovative moment.And "reconceptualization" as one of the high level innovative moments appeared later in the group.(3)Each satisfaction item was more than 4 points both in narrative group and support group.Conclusion1.From the perspective of self-assessment of subjective scales,the narrative group and the support group counselingdecreasedthe socialanxiety ofcollege students,and significantly improved the self-identity and positive psychological capital level.2.From the perspective of physiological arousal,the two group counseling methods have a certain degree of mitigation on subjective physiological arousal level and objective physiological signals in speech tasks of social anxiety college students.Moreover,the narrative group is better than support groups.3.From the perspective of qualitative analysis,the narrative group provided more reshaped hope for members in the process of externalization.And the narrative theory and techniques had effectively promoted social learning among members.At the same time,the law of these innovative moments was consistent with good group counseling.Innovation(1)Take the lead in using narrative group counseling to intervene in domestic social anxiety college students,not only concerned with the relief of social anxiety symptoms,but also focusing on the protection of the subject.(2)It not only combines the comprehensive indicators of subjective,behavioral,and objective physiological signals,but also combines the innovative moment analysis and the qualitative analysis of the efficacy factors,enriching the research methods.Inadequate research and future directions(1)the scorer of the "Behavioral Assessment of Speech Anxiety" has a low reliability of consistency,so it needs to further revise the tools or use a more concise and feasible tool in other-evaluation of behavior;(2)The study did not track and measure the subjective and objective physiological indicators and behavioral indicators,so it was need to be improved the experimental design;(3)The application of innovative moment analysis in this study is not yet complete,and it needs to be further explored to develop and construct a set of innovative moment code system that is close to both international standards and Chinese conditions.