The Development and Effects of Group Counseling Program to Promote the Career Preparation Behavior Based on Acceptance-Commitment Therapy for Soldiers

The purpose of this study was to provide applicability of group counseling programs based on acceptance-commitment therapy to promote soldiers’ career preparation behavior and experiential evidence. The developed program was based on ACT(Acceptance & Commitment Therapy) theory and the mode of group counseling program consisted of 8 sessions of 90 minutes for each session. 24 soldiers were randomly assigned to 2 groups of 12. One was an experiment group to which career preparation behavior promotion program was implemented. The other was an untreated control group. In order to verify the effectiveness of the group counseling program, quantitative research as well as qualitative research on psychological experience were performed. According to the result of quantitative analysis, as compared with the control group, the experiment group was promoted in the areas of all career preparation behavior and its subdomains of self-understanding behavior, occupational field search behavior, and career preparative reinforcement behavior. In addition, career barriers were reduced and commitment action was improved. There was no significant change in acceptance behavior. In this respect, additional review is required. According to qualitative analysis results, we found that the core processes of ACT(Acceptance & Commitment Therapy) have psychological flexibility that is aimed at ACT(Acceptance & Commitment Therapy) by interacting in the early, middle, and late stages of group process. Based on this, I think that they was able to move toward a commitment to prepare for their career by recognizing and accepting the career barriers that they inevitably face in the course of preparing and preparing career goals that meet their own values. It is a great significance and a result that it can be applied in the military social welfare practice field that deals with the career of soldiers even in a rapidly changing and difficult environment.

본 연구의 목적은병사들의 진로준비행동 촉진을위해 수용-전념치료에 기반한 집단상담 프로그램의 적용가능성과 경험적 증거를제공하는데 있다. 개발된프로그램은 ACT이론을 바탕으로하였고 집단상담 형식으로매 회기별로 90분씩 8회기로 구성하였다. 대상은병사 24명을 2개집단에 12명씩 무선배치하여 이 중 1개 집단을 이연구에서 개발한 진로준비행동 촉진집단상담 프로그램을 실시하는실험집단으로 하고, 나머지 1개 집단은 무처치집단인 통제집단으로 하였다. 집단상담 프로그램의 효과검증을 위하여 양적연구와 더불어 심리적경험에 대한 질적연구를 병행하였다. 양적분석결과에 의하면 실험집단이 통제집단에 비해진로준비행동 전체와 하위영역인 자기이해행동, 직업세계탐색행동, 진로준비강화행동을 촉진시켰다. 또한진로장벽이 감소되었고 전념행동이 향상되었다. 수용행동에는 유의미한변화가 나타나지 않았으며이에 대한 추가적인검토가 필요하다. 질적분석결과에 의하면 ACT의 핵심과정들이 집단과정의 초기, 중기, 말기의 전 과정에서상호작용함으로써 ACT에서 목표로 하고있는 심리적 유연성을가지게 되었음을 알수 있었다. 이를바탕으로 자신의 가치에맞는 진로목표를 수립하고이를 준비해가는 과정에서필연적으로 직면하게 되는진로장벽을 알아차리고 수용함으로써 진로준비를 위한전념행동으로 나아갈 수있었다. 이것은 급변하고어려운 환경 속에서도병사의 진로를 다루는군 사회복지 실천현장에서 적용할수 있다는 것이큰 의의와 성과라할 수 있다.