Abstract

This study investigated the effect of rational emotive behavioural therapies on psychoactive substance use among senior school secondary students in Plateau State, Nigeria. The study was guided by three research questions and three hypotheses. The study adopted a Quasi-experimental research design which include pre-test and post-test for both the experimental and the control group. A sample of 75 SSS 2 students was drawn from the population of 130,918 secondary school students across the 17 Local Government Areas of Plateau State using purposive sampling and simple random sampling techniques. Two instruments titled: Psychoactive Substance Use Scale (PSUS) and Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy, and Psychoactive Substance Use Scale (REBTPSUS) developed by the researcher were used in this study. Psychoactive Substance Use Scale (PSUS) was used for screening of the participants for the study, while Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy, and Psychoactive Substance Use Scale (REBTPSUS) was used for data collection. The instruments were validated by two experts from the department of Guidance and Counselling, Faculty of Education, Nasarawa State University, Keffi. The logical validity indices of 0.86 and 0.80 were obtained for PSUS and REBTPSUS, respectively. Cronbach Alpha coefficient method was used to establish the internal consistency of the instruments. This yielded the reliability coefficients of 0.87 and 0.83 were obtained PSUS and REBTPSUS, respectively. Means and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance at pre-test and posttest. Findings revealed that Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy was effective in preventing substance use among senior secondary school students. Also, there is no gender difference on effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) treatment on psychoactive substance use among senior secondary school students in Plateau State, Nigeria. It was recommended among others that school counselors should be trained and equipped to use Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) techniques as part of their intervention strategies for students involved with or at risk of using psychoactive substances