Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the elements that would increase the effectiveness of a group counseling program for improving the positive psychological capital of middle and high school soccer players. To this end, a group counseling program for increasing participants’ positive psychological capital was developed based on Luthans’ (2002) positive psychological capital theory. The program was developed through a systematic development process that included four stages: goal-setting, program composition, preliminary research, and program implementation and improvement. Based on the results of a needs survey given to 80 players on the youth soccer team belonging to the Ulsan professional soccer team and previous research, the program was composed of eighth session. The validity of the program’s content was verified by experts after which it was corrected and supplemented. This study’s participants were 10 second-year middle school students and 9 second-year high school students on the youth football team belonging to the Ulsan professional soccer team. The middle school and high school students participated in a group counseling program for improving their positive psychological capital separately. The program was conducted twice per week for a total of 8 sessions. A pretest-posttest design was used for each measurement tool and the results were analyzed using paired sample t-tests. The results showed that there was a significant increase in the positive psychological capital; performance strategies, as measured by participants’ psychological skills; and subjective happiness in both groups. In particular, in the case of positive psychological capital, a significant improvement was confirmed in both groups in the subfactor, and in the subfactor of test of performance stratagies(psychological skills), a significant effect was found in all high school soccer players group. This paper discusses this study’s significance, its limitations, and suggestions for follow-up research.