The purposes of this study were to examine the factors of psychological maladjustment experienced by adolescents for educational welfare, and to analyze the effects of a self-growth group counseling program applied to horticultural activities, which have been considered effective social alternatives, on adolescents’ self-esteem, ego-resilience, and stress change. For these purposes, the program was executed for 8 th -grade students at Y Middle School through 10 sessions, once a week, and 100 minutes per session during the period from 5 September to 14 November in 2014. As to difference between before and after the program, when the horticultural activity program based on self-growth group counseling was applied, the control group included many negative ranks in self-esteem before and after, and thus there wasn’t significant change, but all the subjects in the experimental group showed highly significant improvement (P=0.005). As to changes in ego-resilience, both the control group and the experimental group included many positive ranks and the changes were significant, but the significance was somewhat higher in the experimental group than in the control group (P=0.007). A decrease in stress is indicated by a large number of negative ranks. The control group had many positive ranks, and thus the change was not significant. In the experimental group, all the subjects had a negative rank and therefore the change was highly significant (P=0.005). If such a horticultural activity program is applied to adolescents through a longer period, it is believed to bring a positive change in them.