The Self-Esteem Program in Accordance with Buddhist Psychology to Alleviate Depression among Youth in Hang Dong District, Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to: 1. investigate the problems of depression among adolescents, 2. develop a self-esteem enhancement program based on Buddhist psychology to reduce depression, and 3. examine the effectiveness of the developed program. A mixed-methods research design integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches was employed. The qualitative phase involved 31 key informants, including 20 participants in in-depth interviews and 11 participants in focus group discussions. The findings were used to develop the self-esteem enhancement program based on Buddhist psychology. In the quantitative phase, data were collected from 856 adolescents aged 15–18 years. Among them, 117 adolescents with moderate depressive symptoms were identified. The sample size was determined using G*Power, resulting in 50 participants who were equally assigned to an experimental group and a control group (25 participants in each group). The research instruments included the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), which demonstrated a reliability coefficient of .968, and the self-esteem enhancement program based on Buddhist psychology. Data were analyzed using percentages, means, standard deviations, and t-tests.

The findings revealed that: 1.adolescents experienced concerning levels of depression, primarily resulting from academic pressure, family problems, social media influences, and developmental changes during adolescence, 2. the developed program, entitled Youth Power Up: Building Inner Strength and Self-Worth, integrated Yonisomanasikara, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and self-esteem enhancement principles. The program consisted of 10 activities implemented over 10 hours, 3. the experimental results showed that participants in the experimental group demonstrated significantly lower depression scores and significantly higher self-esteem scores at the .01 level both immediately after the intervention and at the one-month follow-up. These findings indicate that the program was effective in reducing depression and enhancing self-esteem among adolescents.