Analysis Of Self-Acceptance And Intervention For Junior Middle School Students Under Depressive State

Although many researches have been studied depression in children and adolescence,only a few have paid attention to those who experienced depression,but do not meet the criteria of depression.In this study,we want to examine the relationship between depressive experience and self-acceptance of junior middle school students,to discuss the self-acceptance characteristic of junior school students who are under depressive state, and based on the theme of self-acceptance, to explore the efficacy of group training in relieving the high level of depressive experience. We randomly selected two junior middle schools in Shanghai, a classroom-based screening using Depressive Experience Questionnaire (DEQ), Self-Acceptance Questionnaire (SAQ), and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) for the 6th to 8th graders were taken. Then those who met the operational definition of depressive state and who had a low level of self-acceptance were involved in the follow-up experimental study, a group training intervention based on enhancing self-acceptance. The experiment is a pretest-post-test control group design, and the study group received an eight weekly 90-minute group sessions whereas the control group did not receive any intervention. There are fifteen subjects in each group, with eight boys and seven girls in the experimental group and nine boys and six girls in the control group.The results are as follows:1.The students who meet the operational definition of depressive state amount to 124, which accounts for 22.6% of the total sample (N=549). In demographic variables, only different grades present a significant difference in DEQ total scores (F=5.52.p<0.01).2. The average total score of SAQ of students who are under depressive state is 37.24 points (SD=7.48), a little lower than that of the total sample. Significant differences are found on the types of family structure and grades (t=-2.26, p<0.05; F=4.71, p<0.05), but there is no significant difference on other demographic variables.3. Compared to the normal students, the self-acceptance level of subjects under depressive state is significantly different (t=7.98, p<0.001).4. The depressive experience of the junior middle school students is negatively correlated with their self-acceptance level in a significant way (r=-0.25, p<0.01).5. The total scores of DEQ and SAQ are both remarkably different in pre-post evaluation (td=5.19, p＜0.001; ts=-7.54, p<0.001). In post-test, the difference between experimental group and control group also reaches onto a significant level.Based on the results we concluded that:1.22.6% students suffered from high depressive experience, and a significant difference of depressive experience exists in grades, and seven graders' depressive experience is significantly higher than that of the eight ones.2. Students under depressive state showed a low level of self-acceptance. Those grown up in the nuclear family got a significantly higher self-acceptance level, compared to that of the special family; there is also a significant difference of self-acceptance in grades, presenting an increasing trend with grades.3. The self-acceptance level of the junior middle school students is negatively correlated with their depressive experience. The higher the depressive experience is, the lower the self-acceptance is.4. There is a significant difference between the normal students and the depressive subjects of their self-acceptance level. Students under depressive state are lower on the level of self-acceptance.5. The group training based on enhancing self-acceptance can not only raise the self-acceptance level of student with high depressive experience, but also effectively improve their depressive state.