Effect Of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy On Depression Of Students With Hearing Impairment In Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) on depression of students with hearing impairment in Enugu State, Nigeria. The study was guided by three research questions and three hypotheses. The study employed quasi-experimental research design. Specifically, the non-equivalent pretest posttest control group design was employed. The population of the study comprised 49 SS-two students drawn from the two secondary schools, out of which 32 are males; while 17 are females. The entire population was used as the study sample. This is because the population is small and of manageable size and thus requires no sampling. Students Depression Questionnaire (SDQ) adapted from Goldberg Depression Questionnaire. The SDQ was face validated by three experts. The experiment lasted for six weeks. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to establish the internal consistency co-efficient of SDQ to be 0.881.  Mean and Standard Deviation for research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The effect size of the treatment was determined using the partial eta value which was subjected to Cohen’s decision (1988) which is given thus: 1.00 (Very Large), 0.80 (Large), 0.50 (medium) and 0.20 (small). It was found that Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy is effective in the reduction of depression in students with hearing impairment compared to those in the conventional counseling. The effectiveness of REBT is irrespective of the gender of people with hearing impairment. It was recommended that the guidance counsellors should be properly trained through the intervention of REBT experts using the principals of REBT in order to properly apply these principles in reducing depression of students with hearing impairment. The male and female students who have manifestations of depression and its symptoms should be subjected to the principles of REBT by the guidance counsellors.