The Effectiveness of a Group Training Program in Reducing Depression And Improving Adjustment of the Elderlies in Amman City

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a group training program in reducing depression and improving adjustment of the elderly in Amman City. The study sample consisted of (68) elderly people in the social development center in Amman. The sample was distributed into two groups:  an experimental group which received group training program to reduce depression and improve adjustment with an average of two sessions a week for four weeks, each session lasted (90) minutes, and a control group that didn’t receive any treatment.

Two instruments were applied on the entire study sample; the first one was Beck’s Depression inventory, and the other was the scale of psychological adjustment (a pre-test), then a group training program was applied on the experimental group. By the end of the training program, the same study instruments were reapplied on all the study sample members (post-test), then ANCOVA to investigate the effect of the experimental treatment on both depression and adjustment. The results indicated the existence statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control group on both of the study tools, as the level of depression decreased and the level of adjustment increased on the part of the experimental group compared to the control group.

Keywords: Group training program, Depression, adjustment, the Elderly