The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of a communication improving coaching program on Christian youths’ self-acceptance, empathy, communication skills and sense of faith community. For this purpose, the researcher recruited 6 test gro...
The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of a communication improving coaching program on Christian youths’ self-acceptance, empathy, communication skills and sense of faith community. For this purpose, the researcher recruited 6 test group youths and another 6 control group from 'D' Church in Seoul and then the test group underwent a coaching program once every week for 120 minutes, consisted of 5 sessions, while the on-line zoom was used for all the processes of the group coaching. Two groups were tested 3 times at beforehand, afterwards and 4 weeks after the program. In order to analyze the data, SPSS-WIN 25 was used to confirm the homogeneity of the two groups followed by a verification of the interaction effects between the two groups. We also applied the independence sample T-test, paired T-test as well as one-way ANOVA with repeated measurement. The results of this study can be summarized as follows;
First, the test group's average self-acceptance scores rose a little after the program, but such differences were not significant statistically. Thus, the hypothesis 1 'The coaching program would have positive effects on Christian youths’ self-acceptance' could not be supported. Secondly, the test group's average empathy scores rose a little after the program, which was not significant statistically, either. Thus, the hypothesis 2 'The coaching program would have positive effects on Christian youths’ empathy' could not be supported. Thirdly, the test group's average communication skill scores rose a little after the program, which was also founded to be statistically insignificant. Thus, the hypothesis 3 'The coaching program would have positive effects on Christian youths’ communication skills' could not be supported. Lastly, the average scores of the control group tended to fall in the sense of faith community, while those of the test group rose a little but not significantly. Hence, the hypothesis 4 'The coaching program would have positive effects on christian youths’ sense of faith community' could not be supported.
This study had some boundaries considering the fact that the sample size is not big and that the test sessions were short, but it is considered significant in the following aspects.
The first significance is that they had moved away from most passive lecture-type programs conducted by churches and that it made them to participate in the group coaching with clear goals for individual growth and change. Secondly, the Christian youths who had suffered a relational instability during the COVID-19 period experienced a program designed to encourage them to change their perspectives and behaviors in the relationship among themselves as well as others and including God and the third significance is that it changed negative perceptions of self-expression that have been hardened in a long religious life to realize that healthy self-expression is an important factor in creating a healthy community. Fourthly, by operating in the form of a small group rather than a uniform church education, we can share deep inner stories, opening the possibility of dynamic and restorative small group operation. Lastly, it is meaningful in that it is a study that suggested ways to increase the participation of church members who were alienated from church education due to various restrictions via zoom in the situations of stage 4 of COVID-19.