A Positive Psychodrama Intervention to Improve Psychological Well-Being in University Students

Plain-language summary

Psychological well-being has been conceptualized as the realization of one's potential, the ability to establish meaningful relationships, the capacity to utilize environmental opportunities in line with personal goals, self-direction, and the development of positive self-esteem. Within contemporary educational frameworks, student development is supported not only through instructional services but also through student personal development services, which contribute to identity formation. Psychodrama, as an action-oriented group intervention, aims to enhance psychological well-being through techniques such as enactment, cognitive processing, catharsis, surplus reality, mirroring, confrontation, empathy development, and role flexibility. Previous studies have demonstrated the application of psychodrama across various domains, including reducing anxiety, alleviating hopelessness, enhancing self-esteem, improving communication and social skills, addressing crises and addiction, coping with depressive symptoms and chronic illness, and supporting mental health. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of psychodrama as a psychoeducational intervention on psychological well-being, self-esteem, self-compassion, empathy, and affective awareness among undergraduate nursing students in Turkey. The study will be conducted with students enrolled in a nursing faculty, specifically those who have taken the pediatric nursing theoretical course and are preparing to begin their clinical practicum. This study is designed as a randomized controlled trial. Participants will be recruited from second- and third-year nursing students and will be informed about the study prior to voluntary participation. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group (maximum of 20 participants per group). The experimental group will participate in a structured psychodrama program consisting of 10 sessions, conducted twice weekly, each session lasting approximately two hours. The sessions will be facilitated by a certified psychodramatist and a co-therapist under supervision. The control group will receive no intervention. Data will be collected at three time points: baseline (pre-test), post-intervention, and a 2-month follow-up. In the pre-, post-, and follow-up assessments, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), PERMA Profiler, Basic Empathy Scale (BES), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), Emotional Contagion Scale (ECS), and the HEXACO Personality Inventory will be administered. The instruments used in this study also include a sociodemographic questionnaire (11 items). In addition, qualitative data will be collected through post-session interviews with participants in the psychodrama group to explore their experiences. Based on existing empirical evidence and the limited number of studies conducted with nursing students, particularly in pediatric nursing contexts, this study aims to contribute to the literature by examining the effects of psychodrama group interventions on developmental outcomes, self-compassion, self-esteem, well-being, affective awareness, and empathy levels among nursing students. It is hypothesized that there will be statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in terms of these outcome variables (H1). Furthermore, it is expected that the positive effects of the psychodrama intervention on these variables will be sustained over time, indicating long-term effectiveness (H2). Beyond hypothesis testing, the findings are anticipated to provide practical implications for the design and implementation of psychodrama-based interventions in academic settings.

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