Author(s)

Mengjie Lei ¹, Xu Qiao ¹, Huiming Hu ¹, Tong An ¹, Ya Zhang ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Mental Health Education Center, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, Anhui, China

Corresponding Author

Mengjie Lei

ABSTRACT

This study examined the immediate and sustained effects of a "Hero's Journey" group counseling program based on narrative therapy on college students’ psychological capital and self-identity. A pretest-posttest follow-up design with an experimental and a control group was employed. Twenty-four college students from Anhui University of Finance and Economics were recruited and randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. The experimental group received a five-week narrative therapy group counseling, while the control group received no intervention. Participants completed the Psychological Capital Questionnaire and the Self-Identity Scale at pretest, posttest, and one-month follow-up. Within-group comparisons showed that self-identity scores in the experimental group increased significantly from pretest to posttest (P < 0.01) and remained significantly higher at follow-up (P < 0.05). The psychological capital scores of experimental group improved but not significantly. No significant changes occurred in the control group. Between-group comparisons of change scores (posttest minus pretest) showed significantly greater gains in both psychological capital and self-identity in the experimental group versus the control group (P < 0.05). Narrative therapy group counseling enhanced college students' self-identity effectively, even sustained at one-month follow-up, and produced an immediate positive effect on psychological capital. These findings support it's useful among university students' mental health services.

KEYWORDS

Narrative Therapy; Group Counseling; Psychological Capital; Self-Identity

CITE THIS PAPER

Mengjie Lei, Xu Qiao, Huiming Hu, Tong An, Ya Zhang. Rewriting the Hero's Story: An Empirical Study on Narrative Therapy Group Counseling on College Students' Psychological Capital and Self-Identity. Applied & Educational Psychology (2026). Vol. 7, No.1, 164-171. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/appep.2026.070118.

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