A Psycho-Spiritual Intervention to Deal with Aggression of Adolescents Who Self-Harm

Abstract

Psycho-spiritual interventions have been used by many therapists to address the needs of their client for psychological wellness and personal growth. Spirituality is acknowledged to be the integrating force that unites all other aspects of the human individual’s functioning (Burke et al., 2005). This study makes use of a quasi-experiment, of the time series design, involving a psycho-spiritual intervention to reduce the
aggression among adolescents who self-harm. The nine subjects were selected from first year college students, using the Self-Harm Behavior Questionnaire or SHBQ (Gutierrez et al., 2001). The research focused on determining whether the psycho-spiritual intervention, a module entitled Peace by Peace, will make a significant difference in the levels of
aggression of the subjects with respect to physical aggression (PHY), verbal aggression (VER), anger (ANG), hostility (HOS), indirect aggression (IND), and general aggression (AQ Total) of the Aggression Questionnaire or AQ (Buss & Warren, 2000). The format of the intervention is a four-day retreat, incorporating biblical Christianity concepts into discussions about anger, inner hurts, conflict resolution, and stress management.Results of the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test show
that there is a significant difference between the Pretest and Posttest 1 levels of aggression of the subjects with respect to physical aggression, verbal aggression, hostility, and general aggression. However, no significant difference was found between the Pretest and Posttest 2 (delayed posttest, given one month after the retreat) levels of aggression of the subjects in all subscales.