Comparative effectiveness of two counselling therapies in enhancing the self-concept of adolescents

The study examined the comparative effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and client centre therapy (CCT) in enhancing adolescents’ self-concept. The study made use of 3x2x2 factorial design with two experimental groups exposed to REBT and CCT and one control group. The sample for the study consisted of 150 adolescents randomly selected from three secondary schools in Ado-Ekiti. The subjects were randomly assigned to each of the two treatment groups and control group with fifty subjects in each group. The experimental and the control groups were exposed to pretest and post rests of “myself” questionnaire measuring the five domains of self-concept, namely physical appearance, mental capacity, personality traits and social relations and global self-concept. One of the experimental groups was exposed to treatment based on REBT while the other was exposed to treatment based on CCT. The treatment consisted of three sessions of 40 minutes each running through a period of eight weeks. The data were analysed using analysis of covariance.

The results of the analysis showed that rational emotive behaviour therapy and client centred, therapy were effective in significantly solving the self-concept problems of adolescents. It was equally found that the self-concept of adolescents exposed to the experimental groups was significantly different from one another with REBT being more effective that CCT. Also, the result showed that the effect of therapy on self-concept of adolescents in the experimental group did significantly vary with sex. The findings lead to a conclusion that rational emotive behaviour therapy could be preferred to client centred therapy for solving-concept problems of adolescents. Arising from the findings of the study, it is therefore recommended that counsellors could prefer the use of rational emotive therapy to client centered therapy in solving the self-concept problems of adolescents.