Effects of group counseling on height dissatisfaction and attentional bias in adolescence

Height dissatisfaction is a prevalent negative physical self-problem in adolescence. Existing group interventions predominantly focus on improving explicit body cognition while neglecting implicit attentional processing. This study adopted a pre-test and post-test randomized controlled design to explore the intervention effects and cognitive mechanisms of group counseling on adolescent height dissatisfaction. Adolescents with height dissatisfaction received six sessions of standardized group counseling. Explicit height dissatisfaction was measured by self-report scales, and the subliminal dot-probe paradigm was applied to assess implicit attentional bias. The results revealed group counseling effectively alleviated adolescents' explicit height dissatisfaction, whereas it produced only limited effects on modifying implicit attentional bias. This study compensates for the limitations of single explicit evaluation methods, provides empirical evidence for the cognitive mechanism of group intervention for adolescent height dissatisfaction, and offers practical implications for optimizing future intervention programs.