Fostering a Reflecting Processing of the Academic Crisis: The Effectiveness of Group Counselling for Underachieving University Students

Background: University counselling services provide essential support for students navigating critical academic phases. These services have proven to be successful in promoting long-term psychological well-being and student retention. Methods: In a clinical and health psychology perspective, this study aims to analyze the effectiveness of the Narrative Mediation Path (NMP) counselling groups involving 85 underachieving university students, lagging behind in their studies. The intervention aims at promoting psychological well-being, Reflective Functioning, emotion regulation, and academic engagement in order to improve students’ academic performance and prevent university dropouts. At the beginning and end of counselling the following measures were administered: (a) Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation—Outcome Measure, (b) SInAPSi Academic Engagement Scale, (c) Academic Performance Inventory, (d) Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, (e) Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Results: The results showed that counselling group participation was associated with significant and clinical improvement in all the outcomes considered. Reflective Functioning showed a trend toward improvement, but this change did not reach statistical significance. Conclusions: Overall, the present study suggested that group counselling could represent a useful service supporting students’ psychological wellbeing and in facing the difficulties encountered during the academic career.