Evaluating a Psychoeducation Program to Foster Chinese Primary School Students’ Covitality

Abstract

This investigation evaluated the Growth Psychoeducation Intervention (GPI) designed to increase primary school students’ covitality, a construct describing the beneficial combinatorial effects of positive psychological skills and mindsets. Students with higher covitality levels have stronger relationships with their teachers and classmates, and behave in more positive ways. This GPI intervention study employed a pretest-posttest-follow quasi-experimental design to evaluate a culturally adapted group counseling intervention designed to foster Chinese senior primary school students’ (n = 189, ages 9–12 years) covitality levels. The hypothesis was that covitality increases would positively correlate with school belonging and life satisfaction and less frequent bullying victimization. The Social Emotional Health Survey-Primary (SEHS-P) assessed the effectiveness of the GPI eight-week program to promote mental health and decrease bullying. GPI demonstrated effectiveness by improving students’ covitality and school belonging and reducing bullying victimization.