Testing the Efficacy of the FEAR—Model of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Treating Test Anxiety in Chemistry Students

Family health therapy for treating anxiety symptoms in flood victims

BACKGROUND

Flood cases in so many parts of Nigeria, especially in Anambra state and the accruing psychological and health related problems, affecting members of families and society necessitated this study. In view to assist and help affected individuals who specialized in farming therapeutically, this study investigated the effect of rational emotive family health therapy (REFHT) on flood-induced anxiety disorders among farmers in Anambra state Nigeria. This study was guided with 3 null hypotheses.

METHODS

This is a group randomized control study, conducted in Anambra state Nigeria. The sample size was 120 registered cassava farmers in Anambra State Nigeria. A measure of anxiety disorders was used to assess the baseline data of the condition before the treatment, immediately after treatment, and after 3 weeks. The treatment was a self-developed REFHT manual that lasted for 12 sessions, 60 minutes per session with aim of reducing anxiety disorders among farmers who are victims of flood. The manual was delivered by counseling psychologists with orientation in rational emotive behavior and family therapies. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive (mean, standard deviation, chi-square, and percentage) and inferential (Partial Eta Squared, and Analysis of Covariance) statistical tools.

RESULTS

The result revealed no significant gender difference was observed among the study participants' socioeconomic, working status, and loan status. REFHT was significantly effective in reducing flood-induced anxiety disorders among farmers. There was no significant moderating effect of gender on flood-induced anxiety disorders among farmers. There was no significant interaction effect of gender and REFHT treatment on anxiety disorders among farmers.

CONCLUSION

REFHT was significantly effective in reducing flood-induced anxiety disorders among farmers. Based on the findings, this study recommended among others that rational-emotive therapists and family health professionals should liaise with community leaders to provide career counseling services to farmers and establishment of community-based rational emotive institute for each state in Nigeria.

Coaching impact on work-family conflict and occupational stress among educational administrators in primary schools

BACKGROUND

Many workers in developing countries have complained about poor working conditions, unhappiness, and job insecurity. As a result, irrationality in employees judgments of the dissatisfactory status of Nigerian organizational environments has been linked to deviant public employee behavior. Apparently, workers in this work environment experience job-induced hazards and distorted feelings about their occupational well-being. With that in mind, we evaluated the impact of rational-emotive occupational health coaching on work-life quality and occupational stress management among educational administrators in Nigeria.

METHODS

This research employed a group-randomized trial design. A total number of 70 administrators were recruited, measured with 2 measurement tools during the study. Frequency, percentage, and Chi-square statistics were employed to describe the recruited sample, and inferential (mixed model ANOVA) statistics were utilized to examine the information gathered from the participants.

RESULTS

The result showed a significant effect of the rational-emotive occupational health coaching (REOHC) group in decreasing the perception of stress and work-family conflict management among educational administrators. Also, the study reported a significant effect of time on administrators' occupational stress and work-family conflict management. The results also indicate that administrators' occupational stress and work-family conflict coping skills had a significant influence due to group and time interaction effects.

CONCLUSION

REOHC is a powerful and useful coaching strategy that improves perceptions of administrators about work-life and job stress in work environment. Based on these results, we recommend REOHC for practitioners in different works of life.

School-based intervention for academic stress management and school adjustment among industrial technical education students: Implications for educational administrators

BACKGROUND

The high level of academic stress and maladjustment in the school environment led to this study to investigate the management of academic stress and school adjustment among university students using rational emotive behavioral therapy.

METHODS

The study adopted a pretest-posttest control group design. A total of 97 students participated in the study and were measured using an academic stress scale and academic adjustment scale at 3 points.

RESULTS

The results of the multivariate statistics indicated the improvement in the management of academic stress and academic adjustment among Industrial Technical Education students following their participation in the rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) treatment and those in the waitlisted control group (WCG) at 3 points. After the treatment, a second assessment shows that the REBT treatment had a significant effect on improvement in academic stress management and academic adjustment among Industrial Technical Education students and was subsequently sustained at follow-up assessment. It was also found that there is no interaction effect of groups and gender.

CONCLUSION

This study suggests that the reduction in academic stress and improvement in the academic adjustment were due to exposure to rational emotive behavioral therapy. Therefore, school counselors should reach out to students that experiencing a high degree of stress and maladjustment and assist them using rational emotive behavioral therapy.

Rational emotive intervention for work-family conflict and female primary school teachers' well-being

Globally, work and family conflict has been investigated by many researchers. Yet there is an increased prevalence of work-family conflict and its influence on the well-being of the female teaching population, especially Nigerian primary school teachers. This incidence has kept a good proportion of schoolteachers vulnerable to health problems as well as affected their wellbeing. This study evaluates the effect of rational emotive behaviour therapy on improving the well-being of female teachers with irrational behaviours arising from the work-family conflict. This is a randomized study. A total of 69 female primary school teachers in Enugu state Nigeria who met the criteria for inclusion were used as the study participants. Three self-report measures (Work-Family Conflict questionnaire, Multidimensional Health States Scale-Short Form, and Teacher Irrational Belief Scale) were used to collect data. Repeated measures with analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to determine the effects of the intervention. The findings of the study revealed that REBT had a significant effect on the well-being scores of Nigerian female primary school teachers with work-family conflict when compared to their counterparts in the no-intervention group at Time 2. In addition, the effect of REBT on improving well-being in female teachers with work-family conflict was significantly maintained at the follow-up measurements (Time 3). In conclusion, it is suggested that REBT is an effective intervention for moderating the effect of work-family conflict on the well-being of career female teachers. As such, cognitive behavioural therapists can further examine the effectiveness of REBT using other constructs and cultures.

Intervention for Treating Depression in Parents of Children with Intellectual Disability of Down's Syndrome: A Sample of Nigerian Parents

A good number of parents of children with Down syndrome are prone to depressive disorders. The depressive feelings are attributed to negative perceptions of the situation, self, and the future. Given this, we explored the impact of the family health model of rational-emotive behavior therapy on depressive symptoms in parents of children with intellectual disability of Down syndrome in the COVID-19 pandemic era. This is a randomized pretest-posttest control group design that recruited 88 parents of children with intellectual disability of Down syndrome. We measured the depressive symptoms in parents at Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3 using the Beck depressive inventory and Hamilton depression rating scale. We adopted a family health model rational emotive behaviour therapy intervention in treating the depressive symptoms affecting the parents. The analysis of covariate results showed that at initial assessment there was no significant difference between the treatment group and comparison group at baseline evaluation of depressive symptoms in participants. At the posttest, it had a significant effect on the intervention on participants' depressive symptoms. Likewise, a follow-up result still shows that intervention had a significant effect on participants' depressive symptoms of participants. In conclusion, this study suggests that treatment variable accounted for the effect in decreasing depressive symptoms scores of participants.

Testing the Efficacy of Family Health-Model of REBT on Family Values and Quality of Family Life Among Parents of Children with Visual Impairment

The high rate of negative thinking in family circles due to the presence of children with visual impairment has grossly affects the quality of family life. In the case of Nigeria, low quality of family life is prevalent among parents of children with visual loss. This study attempts to validate the efficacy of a rational emotional family health therapy in addressing family values and quality of life among parents of children with visual impairment in Enugu state Nigeria. A group randomized controlled design, participants comprised 132 parents whose children were living with visual impairment in Enugu state, Nigeria. The participants in REFHP-group were exposed to a 12-session treatment programme whereas their counterparts in the waitlisted control group did not receive this intervention. Two measures-Family Quality of Life Scale and Family Value Scale were utilized in assessing the participants at three time points. Data analyses were completed using repeated measures ANOVA. Findings revealed that rational emotive family health therapy had a significantly positive effect on increasing family values and quality of family life among the study participants of the treatment group. This study contributes to the scholarship on the efficacy of rational emotive family health therapy in improving family values and quality of family life among parents of children with visual impairment.