Abstract
BACKGROUND: Inferiority complex is a common psychological disorder occurring in adolescents during their psychological development and the root cause of most psychological problems. However, inferiority complex in adolescents has rarely been examined in previous intervention studies. This practice-oriented study combined character strengths theory with group psychological counseling to examine adolescents with high inferiority complex scores. METHODS: A survey was conducted on 512 adolescents selected using convenience sampling from three middle schools in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, to collect information regarding the degree and characteristics of their inferiority complex. Those with a high inferiority complex score were recruited for a grouped experiment, where the experiment group received group counseling grounded on character strengths theory. RESULTS: The participants had a moderately high degree of inferiority complex (mean = 2.92). Significant differences were observed in the total inferiority complex score across gender, left-behind experience, and academic performance (P < 0.05). After the intervention, the inferiority complex score of the experiment group was significantly lower than that of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION: The intervention model constructed in this study effectively reduces inferiority complex in adolescents, providing a reference for exploring an effective approach to adolescent-targeted mental health education.