THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED GROUP COUNSELING MODEL TO ENHANCE PSYCHOLOGICAL HARDINESS OF CHILDREN WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES AT A SRI SANGWAN, NONTHABURI PROVINCE, THAILAND

Abstract

The objectives of this research were (1) to study psychological hardiness of students with physical disabilities, (2) to develop an integrated group counseling model for enhancing psychological hardiness of those students, and (3) to study effects of this integrated model on enhancing psychological hardiness in an experimental group and compare with a control group. The subjects for studying psychological hardiness were 160 students with physical disabilities at Sri Sangwan school, from Grade 1 of the primary level to Grade 9 of the secondary level. Then, 18 students in Grade 7 were purposely selected to enhance psychological hardiness. They were divided into 2 groups: an experimental group and a control group, 9 students in each group. The experimental group received and used the integrated group counseling model for 11 sessions, 90 - 120 minutes in each session. The control group received usual information from school. The instruments were (1) two rating scale questionnaires for assessment of psychological hardiness, with reliability coefficient of .77 for the primary level questionnaire and .86 for the secondary level questionnaire; and (2) an integrated group counseling model for enhancing psychological hardiness. Data were analyzed with the use of the mean, standard deviation, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Wilcoxon Test, and MannWhitney U Test. The results were as follows: 1. The overall level of psychological hardiness of the students was high. 2. The developed integrated group counseling model was the result of integrating techniques of group counseling therapies, namely, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Behavior Therapy, Reality Therapy, and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy. The model covered 11 sessions, each session consisting of 3 stages: beginning, processing, and ending stages. 3. After using the model, the level of psychological hardiness in the experimental group was significantly higher at the .01 level of statistical significance, and was significantly higher than that of the control group students at the .05 level of statistical significance.