A mentalizing online group counseling for underachieving university students during the Covid-19 Pandemic: an explorative study on its effectiveness

Introduction. University students often report higher levels of psychological distress compared to the general population and they are highly at risk for mental health disorders (Mboya et al., 2020). COVID-19 contagion containment measures have had an impact on the mental health of university students (Mari & Scarpaci, 2020; Pan et al., 2020; Zhai & Du, 2020), their ability to cope with important developmental tasks and their academic engagement. It has become necessary, therefore, to offer online counseling services which have become the means of choice to support students who are facing moments of crisis during pandemic era. Aims. This exploratory study aimed to analyze the effectiveness of 13 online seven-session counseling groups involving 66 underachieving students in late with examinations. The counseling groups, based on the Narrative Mediation Path (NMP; Freda, Gonzàlez-Monteagudo & Esposito, 2016) methodology, aim at promoting students’ mentalization, academic engagement and psychological well-being in order to have an impact on students’ academic performance and prevent dropouts and mental health risks. Methods. At the beginning and end of counseling the following measures were administered: a) Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, b) Psychological General Well-Being Index Short Form, c) Academic Performance Inventory, d) University Student Engagement Inventory, e) Group Climate Questionnaire. Results. The results showed that, despite the high levels of psychological distress at the beginning of the intervention, students reported a significant improvement in all the variables under study. Conclusions. The present study showed the effectiveness of the NMP online counselling group in supporting students to cope with the difficulties encountered during their academic career in the pandemic era.