<![CDATA[This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of group counseling using the symbolic modeling technique in reducing students’ feeling guilty. Adolescents at a vocational high school located within an Islamic boarding school environment face academic, social, and disciplinary pressures that may trigger excessive feelings of guilt. This study employed a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental design, specifically a nonequivalent control group design. The subjects consisted of 20 tenth-grade students from SMKS Pesantren Terpadu Roudlotul Hidayah, selected using purposive sampling based on high feeling guilty scores, namely scores > 100. The subjects were divided into an experimental group (n = 10), which received group counseling using the symbolic modeling technique, and a control group (n = 10), which received conventional group counseling without symbolic modeling. Data were collected using a feeling guilty questionnaire based on Rollo May’s existential theory, which had been tested for validity and reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.931. Homogeneity and pretest equivalence tests indicated that both groups were equivalent before the intervention. An independent sample t-test on the gain scores yielded t(18) = -2.181, p = 0.035 (p < 0.05), with Cohen’s d effect size of 1.358, indicating a very large effect. The experimental group experienced an average decrease in feeling guilty scores of 33.6 points, from 105.2 to 71.6, whereas the control group experienced a decrease of 22.4 points, from 110.8 to 88.4. These findings indicate that group counseling using the symbolic modeling technique is effective as an alternative intervention for Guidance and Counseling teachers in adaptively reducing students’ feeling guilty.]]>
