EFFECT OF COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY AND SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ LOW SELF-ESTEEM IN JALINGO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF TARABA STATE.

Abstract

The present study investigated the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy and social skills training on secondary school students’ anger in the Jalingo local government area of Taraba State, Nigeria. Two (2) objectives were formulated to guide the study, and two (2) null hypotheses were formulated and tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The researchers adopted a one-group quasi-experimental design of pre-test and post-test. One public secondary school was selected from Jalingo Local Government Area of Taraba State to participate in the study. The target population was fifty-eight (58) SS 2 students who exhibited angry behaviour from the selected school. The sample size of twenty-three (23) SS II students made up of six (6) male and seventeen (17) female students was selected through purposive sampling. An instrument tagged Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale (RSES) consisting of ten (10) items with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.85 to 0.90 was used to collect data for the study. The research questions were answered using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, while the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to test hypotheses for the study.  Based on the data collected and analyzed, the following findings were recorded among others: The study revealed that the combined Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Social Skills Training (SST) intervention significantly improved the self-esteem of secondary school students in Jalingo Local Government Area of Taraba State. There was a substantial increase in students’ self-esteem scores from pre-test to post-test, and the improvement was statistically significant (z = -3.912, p < .05). The intervention was effective for both male and female students, although female students recorded slightly higher mean gains; however, the difference was not statistically significant. Furthermore, the intervention produced a large practical effect size (r = 0.58), indicating a meaningful impact on students’ self-esteem and psychosocial functioning. The study concluded that the combined CBT and SST intervention is an effective strategy for improving self-esteem among secondary school students. The researchers recommended that educational authorities institutionalize CBT and SST programmes in secondary schools; school counsellors should implement regular screening for low self-esteem and provide timely psychosocial support; and government agencies should provide adequate resources to strengthen school mental health services.