Using Turkish comedy cinema films in group therapy to increase self-esteem among adolescents

In this article, it is aimed to describe creation, application and assessment of a programme whose intention is to increase self-esteem levels in Turkish adolesscents. It targets a pilot group and different aspects of self-esteem such as biological age, autonomy, confidence and good friendships were taken into consideration. This was achieved with the help of film clips whose names are Banker Bilo and Zugurt Aga so as to depict the four week theme. Adolescents who attended this study were Turkish aged between 15 and 18. The group's self-esteem levels were evaluated using the oopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory beside weekly outcome measures. The group was a quite small one so it was diffucult to come up with a prominent change in self- esteem. Although the group was rather small, it was observed that four out of seven participants increased their self-esteem levels while two of them were indifferent and one even decreased. Above all, participants rated the group to a large extend and the film clips appeared useful. It was a common belief that the film clips worked well. This was proved with high score reports because they had the emotion that the group was true for them, they indicated that they would recommend this group to others because they felt that they were comprehended as a young Turkish adolescent and they had good reviews about themselves at the end of the study. When we take a look at the replies of the participants, we understand that these film clips were well understood and they made it easy to discuss weekly themes about self-esteem.