"Support for Forest Experience of Protected Youth... Positive Psychology Up 13%"

An analysis has shown that forest experience opportunities provided to protected youth help improve their psychological stability and positivity.

The Korea Forest Welfare Institute's Forest Welfare Research and Development Center announced on the 22nd that the psychological positivity indicators of protected youth participating in the 'Kok' support project improved by 13%.

Family vacationers are participating in a forest experience family program. Provided by Korea Forest Welfare Institute

The Kok support project is a type of forest education program aimed at strengthening the self-reliance capabilities of children who have completed protection, out-of-home youth, out-of-school youth, and youth under juvenile protection measures.

Protected youth participating in this program receive a three-stage self-reliance capability enhancement education consisting of ▲forest experience education (care) ▲career education in the forestry field (preparatory education) ▲job experience (growth support).

The Forest Welfare Research and Development Center conducted a comparative analysis of emotional stability, self-esteem, and career maturity before and after program participation among 461 protected youth who participated in the program last year. The purpose was to confirm the psychological effects of the program on emotional stability and self-reliance capability enhancement of protected youth.

As a result, the emotional stability score of protected youth increased from 58.6 points before participation to 74.7 points after participation, a 14.1% increase; self-esteem rose from 31.2 points to 36.3 points, a 12.8% increase; and career maturity increased from 81.5 points to 96.3 points, a 13.7% increase.

Visual data analyzing the effects of forest experience activities for protected youth. Provided by the Korea Forest Welfare Institute, Forest Welfare Research and Development Center.

Based on this, the Forest Welfare Research and Development Center plans to expand the annual number of participants in the first-stage care project of the Kok program to 6,000 this year and to integrate and operate the second-stage preparatory education project and the third-stage growth support project to maximize the program's effectiveness.

Choi Jeong-ho, head of the Forest Welfare Research and Development Center, said, “This analysis once again verified the effectiveness of self-reliance enhancement programs for youth outside the system. The Forest Welfare Research and Development Center will continue to objectify the effectiveness of forest welfare programs to secure credibility and strengthen efforts to care for youth mental health through forests.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.