(236) Introducing Destructive Therapy as a Means of Assisting Health Profession Students Manage Stress and Anxiety

Objective : To evaluate the effect of a social cognitive theory (SCT)-based educational intervention that incorporates destructive therapy, on the perceived stress, anxiety, situational perception, outcome expectations, and self-efficacy of health profession students.

Methods: This investigation utilized a pretest/posttest control group design. Graduate level health profession students participated in a month-long intervention consisting of 60-minute seminars held once weekly for three weeks, and a 10-minute destructive therapy session (n=30). A random sample of students opting not to join the intervention served as the control group (n=32). Seminars were led by a licensed clinical therapist, and included presentations, two outside assignments, guided discussions, and small group learning activities. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect pretest/posttest data and evaluate changes in the dependent variables. Three scales were developed and psychometrically tested to assess SCT constructs. Stress and anxiety levels were measured utilizing the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), respectively. Comparisons were made between groups for each posttest measure using analysis of covariance, with the corresponding pretest scores as covariate.

Results: Compared with the control group, significant improvements at posttest were observed in the intervention group on the measures of perceived stress and generalized anxiety (p=.02 and p=.01, respectively). Significant improvements were also observed within the intervention group for self-efficacy (p <.001) and situational perception (p=.01). Differences were not found to exist for outcome expectations in any analyses.

Conclusions: Empirical research examining the influence destructive therapy may have on mental well-being does not exist in published literature. This investigation elucidates the potential utility of incorporating destructive therapy into traditional behavioral counseling. Moreover, results suggest this intervention may assist health profession students better manage stress and anxiety.