Dr Abigail Edem Okon
Abstract
The study examined perceived impact of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) on conduct disorders among adolescent students in Calabar Education Zone, Cross River State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study evaluated the perceived influence of social skills training and assertiveness training on students’ aggression, deceit, destructive tendencies and rules’ violation in secondary schools. It also examined the influence of gender on the levels of aggressive tendencies among students. The study adopted a survey design method, and the period under study was 2022/2023 school session. The target population was public secondary school students in the study area; while a sample of 700 Senior Secondary One and Two (SS 1 and SS 2) was used. Judgemental, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were adopted to select the sample. A 16-item researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Statistics adopted for data analysis were frequency counts and contingency chi-square. It was found, among others, that social skills training and assertiveness trainings as REBT had high positive influence in curbing adolescents’ conduct disorders in schools. It was recommended that educators, social psychologists and psycho-therapists should always vary their therapeutic approaches in accordance with different conduct disorders as different situations may require different approaches.