Abstract:

Depression among adolescents has become one of the most challenging mental health issues of the 21st century. Failure to cooperate with treatment strategies is a major impediment to success and facilitates depressive problems being carried into adulthood. A distorted cognitive perspective (of self, future potential, and/or current experiences) has been defined as a risk factor for depression at all ages. An effective strategy that has been developed to control such self behavior is positive self-talk, which relates to an individual’s thoughts or perceptions that they are responsible for. The Positive Self-Talk Training Program (PSTP) has been successfully applied to alliterate maladaptive perceptions or cognitive systems and to reduce symptoms of depression.

A quasi-experimental research study (pre-post tested) was conducted in the Boromarajajonani Nursing College, Trang. Forty-five depress nursing students were enrolled and randomly separated into two groups: experimental group (n=15) and control group (n=30). The groups were matched for sex, age, and level of depression (mild to moderate). The experimental group was trained in and rehearsed positive self-talk by using the followings instruments: 1) demographic data form; 2) Beck Depression Inventory IA (BDI-IA); 3) Positive Self-Talk Training Program on Depression among Adolescents; and, 4) Burnett Self-Talk Inventory (BSTI). The control group received treatment as usual. The self-talk intervention was measured over a 24 week period. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, paired t-test and independent t-test.

The results indicated that the PSTP is significantly efficacious for reducing depression among nursing students (p<0.01) and it represents a feasible intervention approach. Specifically, we found that the depression post-test mean score of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group. (p<0.01). An important limitation of the current study that should be considered when generalizing the findings is that all participants came from a single region (Southern Thailand). Future studies should be designed to include multiple centres in order to better demonstrate the efficacy of the intervention.

Keywords:

Positive Self-Talk.