中華心理衛生協會

Counselors must consider special ethical issues when serving clients who are minors so as to provide complete service and protect their welfare. Purpose: The goal of this study is to understand the ethical difficulties and coping strategies of counselors conducting group sessions with minors. Methods: Two male and seven female counselors (mean age 34) were individually interviewed in depth for 1 to 1.5 hours. All interviews were audio taped. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Analysis of the interviews revealed the following ethical dilemmas for group counselors of minors: recruitment and screening, dual relationships, client autonomy and informed consent, confidentiality, the negative influence of group dynamics, disruptive group members, and inappropriate behaviors of the co-leader. The coping strategies of the counselors included screening by counseling group leaders rather than by teachers, avoiding labeling the group, preventing excessive self-disclosure by members, referrals, managing confidentiality, and applying group counseling skills to cope with group processes or individual issues. Conclusions: Based on the analysis, 3 insights for group counselors of minors were identified. First, the limitations of minors' cognitive ability and their interpersonal needs make them more vulnerable to a dual relationship. Second, school age children may have difficulty understanding the meaning of confidentiality. Moreover, adolescents find it hard to build a relationship with group counseling leaders and are easily affected by peers. These ethical issues relate to the developmental stage of the minors. Third, the difference in group counseling ethical issues between school counseling groups and community counseling groups is the completion of screening and minors' autonomy. In order to deal with these ethical issues, leaders should develop coping strategies according to the minors' developmental stage. For example, counselors can remind members of confidentiality, increase members’ motivation to participate, and observe group dynamics. Also, it is important to establish a beneficial and secure group atmosphere, and imperative that only group topics corresponding to the characteristics and limitations of school age children and adolescents be selected. In addition, leaders should cooperate with parents and other teachers, educate other professionals to understand the ethics of counseling, and assist minors in adapting to their environment after group counseling.