Preliminary Effects of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Group Counselling on Student-Athletes in Southern China

HRMARS - Student-athletes often face challenges such as balancing academics and sports, managing stress, and maintaining motivation. This study investigated the preliminary effects of a six-session Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Group Counselling (SFBT GC) on the self-efficacy and coping mechanisms of ten student-athletes in Southern China. Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ) and General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) Chinese versions were administered at three time points: pre-test, post-test, and two-week follow-up, and changes across time points were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA).Results reveal a significant main effect of time on negative coping mechanisms(F(2, 18) = 8.778, p = .001), while no significant main effects are found for positive coping mechanisms(F(2, 18) = 2.134, p = .148) or self-efficacy(F(2, 18) = 0.434, p = .652). Post-hoc analyses show that scores for negative coping mechanisms significantly decrease from pre-test (M = 2.10, SD = 0.62) to post-test (M = 1.33, SD = 0.47) and follow-up (M = 1.29, SD = 0.35), indicating the effectiveness of SFBT GC in reducing maladaptive coping strategies both immediately after the intervention and over time.In contrast,positive coping mechanism shows a significant decrease across time points (pre-test: M = 2.45, SD = 0.38; post-test: M = 2.00, SD = 0.42; follow-up: M = 1.90, SD = 0.40), suggesting an unexpected decline in adaptive coping mechanism following SFBT GC. Meanwhile, self-efficacy demonstrates a slight but non-significant increase from pre-test (M = 19.40, SD = 4.95) to post-test (M = 21.20, SD = 4.44) and follow-up (M = 21.10, SD = 5.15).Results suggest that the SFBT GC is effective in reducing the use of negative coping mechanisms, with reductions observed immediately after the intervention and maintained at the two-week follow-up. SFBT GC can assist individuals in adopting healthier approaches to managing challenges by reducing maladaptive coping mechanisms. After the intervention, self-efficacy scores increased slightly, but this change did not reach statistical significance, suggesting that SFBT GC had a limited impact on participants' general confidence. Despite the limitations of a one-group pre test-posttest design and a small sample size, this study, this study provides preliminary evidence that SFBT GC can be effective for reducing negative coping mechanisms among student-athletes. These findings prove SFBT GC as a valuable form of psychological support for student-athletes in reducing negative coping mechanisms, while highlighting two critical directions for future research: large-scale controlled trials are needed to validate the sustained efficacy of SFBT GC in reducing negative coping mechanisms among student-athletes; SFBT GC, adapted and further optimized for student-athletes, should be utilized to examine whether this intervention can produce statistically and practically significant improvements in their self-efficacy alongside enhanced coping mechanisms.