Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to study the effects of group reality therapy on coping strategies of the nursing student. The hypotheses were that (1) the posttest scores on the problem-focused coping scale and the functional emotion-focused coping scale of the experimental group would be higher than its pretest scores and the posttest scores of the control group. (2) the post-test scores on the dysfunctional emotion- focused coping scale and the behavioral and mental disengagement scale of the experimental group would be lower than its pretest scores and the posttest scores of the control group. The research design was the pretest- posttest control group design. The sample was 16 third year nursing students randomly selected from the nursing students who scored below the mean on the problem-focused coping scale, and scored at the mean and above on dysfunctional emotion-focused coping scale and the behavioral and mental disengagement scale. They were randomly assigned to the experimental group, and the control group, each group comprising 8 students. The experimental group participated in a group reality therapy program conducted by the researcher, for two hours twice a week over a period of 5 weeks altogether which made approximately 20 hours. The instrument used in this study was the COPE Inventory developed from the Carver, Scheier and Weintraub's COPE Inventory. The t-test was utilized for data analysis. The results indicated that: (1) The posttest scores on the problem-focused coping scale and the functional emotion-focused coping scale of the experimental group are higher than its pretest scores and higher than the posttest scores of the control group at .01 level of significance. (2) The posttest scores on the dysfunctional emotion-focused coping scale and the behavioral and mental disengagement scale of the experimental group are lower than its pretest scores and lower than the posttest scores of the control group at .01 level of significance.