The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an interpersonal relationship program on interpersonal relationships, self-esteem, and depression in nursing students.

This was a quasi-experiment with a nonequivalent control group pre-posttest design. Sixty-four nursing students participated in the study with 31 in the experimental group and 33 in the control group. They were from 3 different colleges of nursing located in Seoul. The interpersonal relationship program was held 10 times over 10 weeks, taking 90 minutes per session. The interpersonal relationship change scale developed by Schlein and Guemey, Rosenberg's self-esteem scale, and CED-S for depression were the instruments used in the study. The data collection period was from January 4 to March 8, 2011, and the collected data were analyzed with SPSS 14.0 using the X²-test, t-test, and paired t-test.

The results showed a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in terms of the degree of interpersonal relationships, self-esteem, and depression.

The results indicate that interpersonal relationship programs have positive effects for improving interpersonal relationships and self-esteem, and decreasing depression in nursing students.