Assertiveness Training, Cognitive Restructuring and Self-esteem among Secondary School Adolescents in Anambra State.

Education, Social Sciences

Assertive training is defined as a form of behaviour therapy designed to help people stand up for themselves, to empower themselves in more contemporary terms. Thus, assertive training is a response that seeks to maintain an appropriate balance between passivity and aggression. The study examined assertiveness training, cognitive restructuring and self-esteem among secondary school adolescents in Anambra State and was anchored on the Rational Emotive Behaviour Theory (RET). An econometric technique involving correlation analysis was employed to test the hypothesis at a .05 level of significance. The result of the analysis revealed that assertiveness training significantly predicts self-esteem among secondary school adolescents in Anambra State, cognitive restructuring significantly predicts self-esteem among secondary School Adolescents in Anambra State and that, level of conventional counselling significantly predicts self-esteem among secondary School Adolescents in Anambra State. We, therefore, conclude that assertiveness training and cognitive restructuring have positively and significantly improved self-esteem among secondary school adolescents in Anambra State. Amongst the recommendations is that teachers, counsellors, psychologists, parents and others should help adolescents with this problem using psychological treatment rather than punishing the adolescents. Counsellors should adopt both assertiveness training and cognitive restructuring counselling strategies as they proved more effective than conventional counselling strategies. Both counselling strategies help in improving students’ self-esteem. The federal government and relevant professional counselling bodies should include them as one of the topics to be discussed during workshops organized for counsellors and professionals. The federal government through the ministry of education should provide in-service training on assertiveness training and cognitive restructuring on a regular basis for counsellors so as to enable them to gain more new insight into assertiveness training and cognitive restructuring. These strategies will help to make the counselling process more stimulating and interesting to the students.

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