Abstract:

This study was carried out to assess the effect of structured group counseling module based on a Gestalt approach on secondary school pupils who were bullies. The hypothesis for this study is: there is a significant difference in the effects of treatments between the treatment groups and the control groups in bullying behavior’s scores in the pre-and post test measures. The effect of group counseling in reducing bullying behavior was measured using self-report. Eighty four subjects comprising of form two and form four pupils were randomly assigned to eight experimental groups with two groups in each zone, one group serving as treatment and one group as control. All subjects were administered the pre- and post-tests for the Bully Behavior Scale measures. Ten counseling sessions of two-hour duration per session, over a period of six weeks, were conducted as the treatment. The control groups were wait-list groups waiting for their turn to take part in the counseling sessions. Statistical analyses used to analyse the experimental data were t- test. The t-test was used to analyse the differences in self-report measures in all the eight groups. The significant level was set at .05. The results of the study showed that the structured group counseling based on an Gestalt approach module was significantly effective in reducing the bullying behavior in every zones; t (2,18) = -3.887, p<.05; t (2,18) = -2.125, p<.05; t (2,22) = -3.819, p<.05; t(2,18)= -3.887, p<.05, in order of their respective zones. This study showed that the structured group counseling module based on Gestalt approach was effective in reducing the bullying behavior amongst the bullies in secondary schools. The results of the study also showed that the structured group counselling intervention was significantly effective in reducing the aggressiveness on all the subjects and increasing the empathy, self-esteem on all subjects. This study showed that the group counselling based on an Gestalt approach was effective in reducing the bullying behavior amongst the bullies.

Keywords:

Counseling, bully, treatment, group.