INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 02, FEBRUARY 2020 ISSN 2277-8616 118 IJSTR©2020 www.ijstr.org Effectiveness Of Strength Based Group Counseling To Improve Students’ Resiliency Sri Rahmah Ramadhoni, Nurul Azizah, Mungin Eddy Wibowo, Edy Purwanto Abstract: This study attempted to examine the effectiveness of strength based group counseling to improve resiliency. The design used in this study was pre-test and multiple post-test designs. Purposive sampling was used to select 14 experimental subjects which were grouped into two in random or in other words, 7 people for each group. The subjects' data were collected through statistic Resilience Quotient (RQ) which was focused on emotional regulation, impulse control, optimism, causal analysis, empathy, self efficacy, and reaching out. The results of mixed repeated measures ANOVA showed that strength based group counseling was effective to improve resiliency (F (1,12) =600.047, p < 0.05). This also could be seen in the effect of time (F (2,24) = 1044.206, p < 0,05), and interaction effect between time and group (F (2,24) =1252.277, p < 0.05). These Findings assert that strength based group counseling is effective to improve resiliency of the students of SMA Negeri 9 Semarang. Index Terms: strength based approach, group counseling, resiliency ——————————  —————————— 1. INTRODUCTION Resiliency is defined as a struggling process with difficulty, characterized by the accumulation of individuals from small successes that occur with failures, setbacks, and disappointments [1], [2], [3]. Resilience provides a process that strength is developed. Resilience is not a persistent and dynamic process, contextual developed as a result of interactions between individuals and their environment. The importance of resilience is possessed by individuals to become aware that they have internal resources that enable them to overcome and mitigate obstacles through the process of resilience development [4]. A person with high resilience is able to transcend the state of life. The power of helping a person transcends and improves personally (for example, physically disability or learning is disabled) and societal (for example, living in poverty or having parents with addiction to sub-attitudes or mental illness) circumstances [5], [6]. Resiliency as the process of struggling with difficulties, characterized by the accumulation of individuals from small successes that occur with failures, setbacks, and intermittent disappointments and the process of someone who survives in the face of adversity [7]. Trying to improve students' resilience requires the right techniques. The technique or strategy that functions to improve students' resilience is to apply strength based group counseling. Group counseling can help individuals become strong, especially adolescents. This group gives acceptance, a feeling that a person is not alone. Group counseling allows someone to help others while encouraging them to develop a positive support network. As members interact with each other, meaning and new solutions can be found [8]. Strength-based group work stresses the identification of members’ resiliencies while acknowledging clients’ problems. Counselors direct group attention when problems occur and how members persist. Strength based counseling helps to develop self-contemplation over their strengths, viewing as a resilient resource when it is in a state of no-breed [9]. Strength based counseling emphasizes self-strength development by identifying his own strengths [10], [11]. The results of previous studies showed that strength based counseling is effective to improve students’ resilience [12]. The findings revealed that a strengths-based approach utilized in an adventure education course was found to be effective in enhancing students' strengths awareness, strengths application, and personal growth [13]. However, In addition, there is a paucity of studies examining the use of strength-based approach to treatment with children at DAEPs [14]. According to the previous explanation, the researchers attempted to examine strength- based group counseling to improve students’ resilience. Some of previous studies are relevant to the current study done by the researchers. However, they also had gaps, so this study aimed to provide novelty, and develop what previous studies have found. By observing the result of existed research, it seems that strength based group counseling has not been implemented in Indonesia. It is known that some of the previous study state strength-based group counseling is effective to improve resilience. Therefore, this research will reveal the impact of the implementation of strength-based group counseling to improve resiliency. 2 METHOD The subjects in this study were the class XI students of SMA Negeri 9 Semarang, consisting of 99 students from three classes. Subjects were selected using purposive sampling technique based on the low level resiliency of (x<131). Once the subjects were collected, they were placed into two groups, namely experimental group and control group using random assignment. Each group consisted of seven students. Subjects in the experimental group received a treatment in form of strength based group counseling, while, those in control group received group counseling with no specific approach. The instrument used was the statistic Resilience Quotient (RQ) which was focused on emotional regulation, impulse control, optimism, causal analysis, empathy, self efficacy, and reaching out developed by Reivich & Shatte [15]. The RQ inventory has 56 items and uses Likert scale with five options criteria, namely: STS (very infeasible), TS (infeasible), CS (fair), S (feasible), and SS (very feasible). Additionally, indicators in this instrument are emotional regulation, impulse control, optimism, causal analysis, empathy, self efficacy, and reaching out. This instrument had item validity of 0,321 to 0,652 and alpha coefficient reliability of 0,743. The session of strength based group counseling to improve resiliency was done six times. Each session had 90 minutes time allotment. Then, the collected data from pretest, posttest, and follow-up were ————————————————  Author name is currently master of education in counseling, Indonesia, PH-082257563711. E-mail: sriramadhoni@students.unnes.ac.id.  Co-Author name is currently profesor of education in counseling, Indonesia, PH-08156610531. E-mail: mungineddy@mail.unnes.ac.id.