Hope-Focused and Forgiveness-Based Group Counseling to Reduce General Anxiety among Tehrani High School Girls

E. Ebrahimi, M.A.

Sh. Navabinejad, Ph D

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of hope-focused and forgiveness-based group interventions to reduce general anxiety among Tehrani high school girls. The population of the study comprised 97685 students from among 400 individuals were selected through random sampling. Pretest, posttest, follow-up research design (with control group) was utilized in this quasi-experimental study. Spielberger STAl inventory was given to the subjects and 30 students with the highest scores on test were chosen. These students were randomly assigned to forgiveness, hope, and control groups. The hope and forgiveness groups participated in 10 sessions of hope-focused and forgiveness-based group interventions, respectively. At the end of the training program Spielberger STAl was given to the three groups again as the posttest. For the purpose of data analysis, descriptive statistics as well as inferential ones (analysis of variance, Levene’s test, and t-test) were used. Obtained results indicated that hope-focused and forgiveness-based group counseling was effective in reducing general anxiety. No significant difference was observed between hope and control groups. Follow-up results showed that hope-focused intervention was more effective than forgiveness-based counseling over time.

Key words: group counseling, forgiveness, hope, general anxiety