Cited by 43Psychological Treatments and AssessmentsAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesStudent Stress and Coping

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 49 of the 50 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 49 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy‐based group counseling on depressive symptomatology, anxiety levels, automatic thoughts, and coping ways Turkish nursing students: A randomized controlled trial

Open access
Demir, Satı, Ercan, Feride·2022·Perspectives in Psychiatric Care

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based group counseling focused on depressive symptoms, anxiety levels, automatic thoughts, and coping ways among undergraduate nursing students with mild to moderate depressive symptoms. DESIGN AND METHODS: A randomized, nonblinded, controlled trial was conducted. The study was completed with a total of 63 participants (n = 31, intervention group; n = 32, control group). The effect of the intervention was evaluated with Beck depression inventory, Beck anxiety inventory, automatic thoughts questionnaire, and ways of coping questionnaire. The measurements were taken three times: pretest, posttest, and 2-months posttest. FINDINGS: CBT-based group counseling was found to reduce depressive symptoms, automatic thoughts, and ineffective coping with stress and to increase effective coping with stress. In both groups, 2-months posttest mean anxiety score was lower than the pre-test mean score. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: CBT-based group counseling reduced depressive symptoms, automatic thoughts, and emotion-focused/ineffective ways for coping with stress.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This randomized controlled trial tested CBT-based group counseling in Turkish undergraduate nursing students with mild to moderate depressive symptoms. It found reductions in depressive symptoms, automatic thoughts, and emotion-focused/ineffective coping, plus increased problem-focused/effective coping, but no intervention-specific reduction in anxiety.

Key findings

  • Depressive symptoms decreased in the intervention group from BDI 13.65 ± 3.14 at pretest to 8.48 ± 5.52 at 2-month posttest (χ² = 15.735, p < 0.001, effect size = 0.970), while control-group BDI did not change significantly (χ² = 4.710, p = 0.095).
  • Automatic thoughts decreased in the intervention group from ATQ 68.71 ± 22.63 to 47.74 ± 12.34 (F = 30.92, p < 0.001, effect size = 1.333), with no significant control-group change (χ² = 1.339, p = 0.512).
  • Anxiety decreased in both groups by 2-month posttest: intervention BAI 19.65 ± 9.23 to 12.87 ± 7.68 (χ² = 9.267, p = 0.010, effect size = 0.703) and control BAI 19.06 ± 12.06 to 13.91 ± 8.69 (χ² = 48.968, p = 0.011, effect size = 0.718); the paper states this did not support H3.
  • Coping changed in the intervention group: problem-focused/effective coping increased from 24.26 ± 7.18 to 29.12 ± 7.49 (F = 11.117, p < 0.001, effect size = 0.763), and emotion-focused/ineffective coping decreased from 16.77 ± 5.89 to 11.65 ± 5.16 (F = 14.501, p < 0.001, effect size = 1.126).

Methods

  • Randomized, nonblinded controlled trial following CONSORT, registered as NCT04192721, conducted with undergraduate nursing students at a Turkish university in the 2017–2018 academic year.
  • Of 992 registered students, 804 completed the BDI; 238 had mild or moderate depressive symptoms, 80 met inclusion criteria and volunteered, and 63 completed the study (31 intervention, 32 control). Randomization was stratified by depressive symptom severity and used computer-generated sequences.
  • Intervention: CBT-based group counseling in six 60–90 min weekly sessions, delivered in four groups of 6–10 members; control received no counseling. Outcomes were measured with BDI, BAI, ATQ, and WCQ at pretest, posttest, and 2-month posttest, analyzed in SPSS 20.0 using repeated-measures ANOVA/Friedman, independent t/Mann–Whitney U, and χ² tests.

Limitations

  • The paper states that almost the entire sample was female, the study was conducted in one university nursing department, and gender was not well distributed.
  • The paper states that the CBT-based group counseling addressed depression, automatic thoughts, and coping but provided no specific anxiety intervention other than relaxation techniques, which may explain the lack of intervention-specific anxiety reduction.
  • The paper states that internal consistency of the WCQ subscales was low in this study; the text also makes evident that the trial was nonblinded and the control group received no counseling.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/ppc.13073

Cites

49 of 49 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

19 Own method · 15 Own result · 10 Check pending · 9 Sources not found · 7 Own interpretation · 6 No full text of the sources · 2 Not checked yet

Verify all 10 references — free account

Show all 37 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 20
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 21
31 of 31
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    There are very few intervention studies evaluating the effect of CBT-based intervention counseling on depression, anxiety, automatic thoughts, and ineffective coping with stress together.

    “Although studies have shown that depression, anxiety, automatic thoughts, and ineffective ways of coping with stress are related to one another, there are very few intervention studies evaluating the effect of CBT-based intervention counseling on these problems, and, consequently, intervention studies that evaluate the effects of depression, anxiety, automatic thoughts, and ineffective coping ways”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The control group receiving no counseling represents the natural course of depressive symptoms, anxiety, automatic thoughts, and coping.

    “While CBT-based group counseling was given to the intervention group, no counseling was given to the control group during the study.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Participants in the control group did not receive other psychological interventions during the study.

    “While CBT-based group counseling was given to the intervention group, no counseling was given to the control group during the study.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    There are very few intervention studies evaluating the effect of CBT on depression, anxiety, automatic thoughts, and ineffective coping together.

    “there are very few intervention studies evaluating the effect of CBT on these problems, and, consequently, intervention studies that evaluate the effects of depression, anxiety, automatic thoughts, and ineffective coping ways together with stress are needed.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Depression, anxiety, automatic thoughts, and ineffective ways of coping with stress are related to one another.

    “Although studies have shown that depression, anxiety, automatic thoughts, and ineffective ways of coping with stress are related to one another”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    University students are a group with a high risk of depression.

    “University students come from many areas of the country and comprise a group with a high risk of depression.”
6 of 6

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Show all 50 references

Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. Aydin G., 1990, Validity and reliability of automatic thoughts questionnaire, Turkish Journal of Psychology, 7, 51
  2. Greenberger D., 2015, Mind over mood: Change how you feel by changing the way you think
  3. Gülnar B., 2021, The relationship between depression, personality types and face to face communication: A field research among university students' in Turkey, Global Media Journal TR Edition, 11, 124
  4. Hisli N., 1989, Reliability and validity of Beck depression Inventory among university students, Journal of Turkish Psychology, 7, 3
  5. Sahin N. H., 1995, Ways of coping questionnaire: Adaptation for Turkish university students, Turkish Journal of Psychology, 10, 56
  6. Sıncar S., 2020, Life satisfaction and Depression in university students: A cross‐sectional study, Balıkesir Health Sciences Journal, 9, 93
  7. Ulusoy M., 1998, Turkish version of the Beck anxiety inventory: Psychometric properties, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 12, 163

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Metadata

Authors
Demir, S., & Ercan, F.
Affiliations
Gazi University (TR)
Corresponding author
Ercan, Feride
Venue
Perspectives in Psychiatric Care
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2022-03-24
Volume
58
Issue
4
Pages
2394-2406
ISSN
  • 0031-5990 (ISSN-L)
  • 1744-6163
OpenAlex
W4220843805
Cited by
43
References
50
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 2
FWCI
6.41
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Perspectives In Psychiatric Care (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
Keywords
cognitive behavioral therapy, group counseling, depressive symptoms, anxiety, automatic thoughts, coping strategies, nursing students, stress coping, emotion-focused coping, Turkish nursing students
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Psychological, Anxiety, Counseling, Depression, Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate, Humans, Students, Nursing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-11-11, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-11-11 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review