School-based humanistic counseling for psychological distress in young people: Pilot randomized controlled trial

Abstract

School-based humanistic counseling (SBHC) is a widely delivered intervention for psychological distress in young people, particularly in the UK. This study piloted a set of procedures for evaluating SBHC and obtaining indications of effect. Psychologically distressed young people (aged 13-16) were randomized to either 12 weeks of SBHC or a waiting list control. The primary outcome was psychological distress at the 12-week endpoint, as measured by the Young Person's CORE. Those allocated to counseling (n=16) showed significantly greater reductions in psychological distress than participants in the control group (n=17), with an effect size (ES) (g) of 1.14 on the primary outcome and a mean ES across all four outcome measures of 0.73 at endpoint. The findings indicate that SBHC may be an effective means of reducing psychological distress in young people.

Effectiveness of school‐based humanistic counselling for psychological distress in young people: Pilot randomized controlled trial with follow‐up in an ethnically diverse sample

“…Using an ethnically diverse sample, the results of this study are consistent with previous outcome evidence at the mid‐therapy and end of therapy (Cooper et al ., ; McArthur et al ., ; Pybis et al ., ). SBHC brought about significant reductions in psychological and emotional distress, but had no significant impact in areas such as peer problems, conduct problems and hyperactivity.…”

“…The Total Difficulties score of the SDQ (SDQ‐TD) is generated by summing the scores on four distress‐related scales. Convergent validity for the overall SDQ‐TD scale has been demonstrated (e.g., Cooper, Stewart, Sparks, & Bunting, ), and internal consistency has been found to be acceptable (Cronbach's α = .82 and .78, Goodman et al ., ; McArthur et al ., ). However, evidence has been found of low reliability and poorly fitting items on some subscales (Hagquist, ).…”

Estimating effectiveness of school‐based counselling: Using data from controlled trials to predict improvement over non‐intervention change

“…Fifteen of these 83 young people were from the SCOPED study (Cooper et al., ); 17 young people were from McArthur et al. 's () pilot trial (termed ‘SUPPORT’); 21 young people were from the RELY study (Pybis et al., ), and 30 young people were from the ALIGN pilot trial (Pearce et al., ). Nineteen of these participants (22.9%) were male, 62 participants (74.7%) were female, and gender data were missing for two participants (2.4%).…”

Secondary school counselling supervision and the impact of the work environment

“…In recent years, there have been a number of studies looking at school counselling. These have included reviews and audits of studies (Cooper, , ), evaluation of school counselling services (Hill et al., ; Mckenzie, Murray, Prior & Stark, ), evaluation of counselling efficacy (Cooper, ; Fox & Butler, ; Lynass, Pykhtina & Cooper, ; McArthur, Cooper & Berdondini, ; Murdoch et al., ; Rupani, Haughey & Cooper, ) and attitudes of other professionals and counsellors working with other professionals (Cromarty & Richards, ; Hamilton‐Roberts, ; Pybis, Hill, Cooper & Cromarty, ; Spong, Waters, Dowd & Jackson, ).…”