Development and practice of psychoeducation to maintain and promote social support exchanges with family and friends

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a psychoeducational practice to maintain and promote support exchanges with family and friends for college students. We developed four sessions, based on previous studies, and they were conducted once weekly as part of a psychology class at a women’s university in Tokyo. Through the psychoeducational practice, psycho-behavioral indicators regarding social support exchanges—self-efficacy regarding support exchanges, perceived and provision of social support from family and friends, and social skills—were measured thrice (pre- and post-psychoeducation, and at the 1-month follow-up). The intervention group (n = 33) received psychoeducational sessions and the contrast group (n = 35) included students who did not take this class. To describe the measurement changes over three points in each group, a latent curve model was tested. The results showed that some indicators in the intervention group were more likely to improve after attending the sessions when compared to the contrast group. Concerning perceived social support from friends, a temporary improvement was only observed post-psychoeducation. As such, further examinations with additional data are suggested.