Effectiveness of psychodrama for mitigating school fears among senior secondary school students

Abstract

This study is focused on the effectiveness of psychodrama for mitigating school fears among senior secondary school students. The study involved 224 students from senior forms (ninth- to eleventh-graders). The efficiency of psychodrama was measured by creating two groups consisting of ninth- and eleventh-graders: the students of the target group (participants of the continuous psychodrama sessions, n = 61) and the students of the comparative group (who did not take part in the continuous psychodrama sessions, n = 163). Two instruments were employed for the purposes of this study: impact method and evaluation method. In order to reduce the manifestations of school fears among secondary school students, psychodrama was used as an impact method. The impact consisted of four continuous psychodrama sessions, each lasting around four academic hours (i.e. group exercises). The differentiated school fear descriptor (DSFD) was used (Rost and Schermer 1997) in order to reveal whether school fears of senior secondary school students changed after the psychodrama sessions. Two questionnaires were used for the purposes of the study: manifestations of school fears (MA) and strategies for coping with school fears (CO). The study results showed that the manifestations of emotional and cognitive school fears among the participants of the target group decreased after the psychodrama sessions; for overcoming school fears, the students of the target group started engaging in productive working activity more often; the students of the target group stated that they experienced fewer emotional and cognitive manifestations of school fears, compared to the students of the comparative group; the students of the target group started using productive working activity for coping with school fears more often, as compared to the students of the comparative group.