Introduction. Unemployment during adolescence and young adulthood presents significant societal and individual challenges, negatively impacting social structures and personal well-being. A key issue is the transition from compulsory education to further education and employment. Not all emerging adults successfully navigate this transition. In Switzerland, vocational integration programs ("motivational semesters") aim to bridge this gap. However, participants in these programs often show elevated levels of psychological distress or mental health disorders. We therefore designed a group psychotherapy implemented in vocational integration programs.
Purpose. The present study therefore aims to explore how adolescents experience group psychotherapy. By identifying distinct typologies, this research seeks to inform clinical practice: to better understand for whom group therapy is effective, and for whom it may not be the best fit.
Method. The sample of the main study comprised 231 adolescents and young adults. It was a longitudinal study wir pre, post and follow up measurements. 139 took part in the interviews conducted at t1 when the adolescents and young adults left the program. Several interviews had to be excluded. The total sample size therefore consisted of 119 interviews. The collected transcripts were initially analyzed using focused content analysis, followed by a type-forming analysis.


Results. Five types of different adolescent group experiences were formed from the interviews: The group-oriented emotional type, the self-oriented observant type, the self-oriented rational type, the negatively evaluated type and the group-oriented altruistic type.


Conclusions. Our analysis revealed that not all participants profit at the same level from group psychotherapy, and that their experience can vary among the different types. These findings give a deeper insight into group psychotherapy for emerging adults