The purpose of this study was to examine how a gardening therapy program affected the ego-identity and psychological well-being of business high school students in a bid to prevent against their dropout and accelerate their school adjustment.
The rese...
The purpose of this study was to examine how a gardening therapy program affected the ego-identity and psychological well-being of business high school students in a bid to prevent against their dropout and accelerate their school adjustment.
The research questions were posed as below:
1. Are there any significant gaps in ego-identity between an experimental group that participates in a gardening therapy program and a control group that doesn't?
2. Are there any significant gaps in psychological well-being between an experimental group that participates in a gardening therapy program and a control group that doesn't?
The subjects in this study were 40 boy and girl juniors at a business high school in the city of Gimhae, who were divided into an experimental group and a control group.
After an experiment was conducted, the following findings were given:
First, concerning the impacts of gardening activities on ego-identity, the gardening activities didn't serve to improve the ego-identity of the business high school students. The testing time and intergroup inter- action had significant effects on their self-acceptance and sense of self, among ego-identity subareas, and this finding implied that the gardening activities contributed to enhancing the self-acceptance of the business high school students and their sense of self.
Second, as for the impacts of the gardening activities on their psychological well-being, the experimental group made a significant progress in psychological well-being in posttest, and there was no change in the control group. Specifically, the testing time and intergroup interaction produced significant effects, which indicated that the gardening activities were effective in solidifying the psychological well- being of the business high school students.
The above-mentioned findings suggested that the gardening therapy was one of successful programs to boost the school adjustment of the business high school students.