Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to study effects of Buddhist personal growth and counseling group on resilience of university students and to investigate psychological experiences concerning resilience of the students who participated in the group, through quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data was obtained through the quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest control group design. Fourteen students whose scores were equal to or were below the mean 0.5 SD on Resilience Scale, were assigned to an experimental group and a control group of 7 members each. The experimental group participated in Buddhist personal growth and counseling group for 6 sessions, a session of 3 hours, 3 sessions per day, for 2 consecutive days, which made approximately 18 hours. During the pretest, posttest and 2-week follow-up study, all participants completed the Resilience Scale. A two-way ANOVA repeated measures and one-way ANOVA repeated measures were used for data analysis. The qualitative data was obtained through the semi-structure interview with 7 participants from the experimental group, after the experiment. The major findings are as follows :1. The posttest and 2-week follow-up scores on resilience of the experimental group are significantly higher than its pretest scores. (p<.001). No differences on those scores are found between the posttest and the follow-up data. 2. The posttest and 2-week follow-up scores on resilience of the experimental group are significantly higher than those scores of the control group. (p<.001) 3.The qualitative analysis of the data indicate that the supportive and meaningful relationships experienced by the members enhance their understanding, accepting and realizing the value of themselves and others and their life experiences and contributing to the increasing of several aspects of resilience including a sense of social support, sense of personal competence, social-interpersonal skills, an action-oriented approach to problem solving, and positive acceptance of change. The positive interactions and trusting relationships facilitating by the group leader can be the initial factor enhancing the resilience among the group members