Effect of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy on Self Concept of Male and Female Speech Disordered Students in Owerri Education Zone, Imo State.

Effect of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy on Self Concept of Male and Female Speech Disordered Students in Owerri Education Zone, Imo State.

Dr. Nnadi Grace Chinyere¹, Dr. Uzoekwe Helen², Dr. Obi Joy Sylvia Chisara³, Lucky Onyeisi Ogben⁴

Department of Guidance and Counselling faculty of Education Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.90300403

Received: 15 March 2024; Accepted: 24 March 2025; Published: 24 April 2025

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect of rational emotive behaviour therapy on the self-concept of male and female speech disordered students in Owerri Education Zone of Imo State. The design of this study is quasi experiment which involved the pre-test, treatment, post-test with control group approach. Three research questions and three null hypotheses were formed to guide the work. The population of the study was a total of 2187 students who exhibited speech disorder in all the public secondary schools in Owerri Education zone of Imo State. The researchers sampled 40 students of the study. The sampling techniques employed are purposive and cluster. The instrument for data collection of this study were researchers made instrument titled: Speech Disordered Students Identification Scale and Speech Disordered Students Self-Concept Scale (SDSSCS) which was adequately validated and found to be reliable at 0.81 and 0.85 index respectively using Cronbach Alpha Statistics. Date collected were analysed using mean score and standard deviation to answer the research questions. The hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed among others that: REBT is effective in the improvement of self-concept of students with speech disorder behaviour, when tested, it was confirmed that the self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour tested with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test are significantly different; and REBT is effective in the improvement of the self-concept of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour, when tested, it was confirmed that the self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test are not significantly different. From the above findings, the researchers recommended that: counsellors should make use of rational emotive behaviour therapy in the treatment of low self-concept among students with speech disorder.

INTRODUCTION

The desire for positive evaluation of self affects a person’s feelings, actions, and aspirations throughout life. In the course of childhood and adolescents, school experience plays an important role in the development of self-perceptions and can have a powerful and long- lasting effect on child’s self-concept and esteem. Because the study of self-concept is, in essence the study of individual differences it follows that it can be undertaken most readily in situations where such differences are maximized. One way of doing this is by considering the impact of disability upon the person’s concept of self. This is because the self is distinctively a subjective centre of one’s experience and significance. It is a kind of inner roadmap that an individual regular consults to route the course of his/her daily activities and successful existence. The function of self-concept is self-evaluation and prediction of success or failure and thus is crucial for an individual survival and attainment of his/her life goals. Laryea, Saani and Dawson-Brew (2014) posited that some individuals perceive themselves as functional members of their group while for some the reverse is the case.

The manner students communicate in their learning environment has an influential role in their academic achievement. Communication is a medium by which educational objectives stated are transmitted and evaluated. Communication is exchange of ideas. It involves two or more people interactively sending message to and receiving messages from one another. In the view of Nwamuo (2010), communication has many purposes and is very vital to education. Children with communication disorder may have subtle difficulties with language or more obvious problems in speaking or hearing. According to Zamie Eske (2023) speech disorder is any condition that affects a person’s ability to produce sounds that create words. Damage to muscles, nerves, and vocal structures can cause it. Also, Schultze and Schultz (2010) defined speech disorder as ‘‘a condition in which the ability to produce speech sounds that are necessary to communicate with others is impaired’’. Speech impairment can be mild such as occasionally mispronouncing a couple of words to severe or not being able to produce speech sound at all. Ekechukwu (2018) defined speech disorder as ‘‘a defective manner of speaking which interferes with communication’’. It is a situation when an individual’s manner of speaking distracts attention from what is said or when the speaker is unduly conscious or apprehensive about speaking. Individuals with speech disorders may have difficulties performing the neuromuscular movement of speech as well as problems in the underlying conceptual knowledge of the sound system and the rules for its use.

Speech disorder can harm the way a person speaks. It affects both children and adults and can often have a negative impact on their lives and ambitions. Speech disorder consists of perceived deviation from normal voice, articulation, fluency or rhythm, and nasal resonance. Articulation disorders are characterized by the distortion or absence of speech sounds. An individual with this problem may experience trouble pronouncing blended sounds such as ‘SP’, Ch, or H sounds as in words like ‘Spaghetti’ as ‘Thaghetti’ Church for Urch, hot for ot. Speech disordered students most times face challenges such as low self-concept, poor academic performances and social withdrawal which could be as a result of their ability to communicate fluently with their peers and school mates. Fluency disorders are characterized by interruption or break in the normal flow of speech such as stuttering, cluttering and false start. Voice disorders are characterized by impairments in the voice, including loudness, vocal quality and pitch. Disorder of Nasal Resonance: This results when there is an abnormal amount of air flow through the nose during speech as in cleft palate or too little air flow through cold, broken nose. Azara (2015), posits that the common symptoms experienced by individuals with speech disorder may include any of the following repeating sounds which is most often seen in people who stutter, adding extra sounds and words, elongating words, making jerky movements while talking, usually involving the head. Other traits may include blinking several times while talking, usually involving the head. Other traits may include blinking several times while talking visible frustration when trying to communicate, taking frequent pauses when talking, and hoarseness, or speaking with a raspy or gravelly sounding voice.

Self-concept is the perception that individuals have of their own worth. This includes a composite of their feelings, a generalized view of their social acceptance, and their personal feelings about themselves (Belmore & Cillessen, 2006). Also, Kendra Cherry (2024), defined self-concept as the image we have of ourselves. It is influenced by the many forces, including our interaction with the important people in our lives. It is how we perceived our behaviours, abilities, and unique characteristics. Self-concept is the way people think about themselves. It is unique, dynamic, and always evolving. This mental image of oneself influences a person’s identity, self-esteem, body image, relationship, and role in society. As a global understanding of oneself, self-concept shapes and defines who we are, the decisions we make, and the relationship we form. It is perhaps the basis for all motivational behaviour. It is often said that there is ability in disability; this can only be accepted when the speech disordered student is able to develop a healthy self-concept and be able to integrate his impairment into his new idea of life. Self-concept develops as a result of one’s experience with the environment and one’s evaluations of these experiences.

There is need to assist speech disordered male and female students to achieve positive self-concept by adequately employing behaviour modification techniques. According to Hannah K. Scott, Ankit Jain & Mark Cogburn (2023), Behaviour modification is a psychotherapeutic intervention primarily used to eliminate or reduce maladaptive behaviour in children or adults. While some therapies focus on changing thought processes that can affect behaviour, behaviour modification focuses on changing specific behaviours with little consideration of a person’s thought or feelings.  Also, Schulze and Schultze (2010) defined behaviour modification as an empirically demonstrated behaviour change technique for increasing or decreasing the frequency of behaviours using reinforcement procedures or extinction strategies. Behaviour modification as an intervention technique has proved to be effective in the treatment or management of behaviour problems. It is expensive and has a success rate of about 75% (Tish-Davidson 2002). The researchers out of the numerous intervention techniques chose Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy to assess their effectiveness in the enhancement of self-concept of speech disordered students.

Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) was propounded by Albert Ellis in 1961. The basic tenet of the therapy is that man is both rational and irrational in his belief system and the type of belief held at any point in time about events and circumstance in his environment, influences his emotions and behaviour. The cardinal goal of the therapy, (REBT) is to eliminate or reduce the rational consequences or emotional disturbances in clients, while the two specific objectives are; to minimize anxiety (self-blame) and to minimize hostility or anger (blaming others or circumstances outside of self). According to Kendra C. (2024) Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) is an action-oriented approach that is focused on helping people deal with irrational beliefs and learn how to manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours in a healthier, more realistic way. Also, Badejo and Anyanwu (2016), Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), is a counselling therapy which is widely used in changing behaviour. It focused on uncovering irrational beliefs about life which led to unhealthy negative emotion. The therapy aimed at replacing the irrational beliefs with more productive alternatives. The core belief of this therapy is that many people make irrational/rational or faulty/accurate assumption about themselves and the world that lead to their emotional and behavioural disturbances or otherwise.

REBT implores many humanistic qualities in its philosophy of emotion and life, these include: Constructivism, Self-actualization, Long-range enjoyment of life, Unconditional acceptance, and Existential choice (Mahfar, Aslan, Noah, Ahmad & Jaafar, 2014). As a result of REBT humanistic stance, many techniques and tools have been developed to foster rational thoughts, explore emotions, and encourage helpful behaviour. REBT brings about a constructive change in the thinking patterns of clients. It is a direct solution-oriented therapy that focuses on resolving specific problems facing a troubled individual. The concept of REBT is that the emotion suffering results primarily from the beliefs and met by events occurring in one’s live. Hence, it is important that there should be healthy, rational growth and happiness. The irrational beliefs shall be identified, disputed, and replaced with rational ones. Once the client is equipped with healthy beliefs, emotional difficulties and problematic behaviour are abated. The technique therefore when applied on the target population during treatment is expected to produce encouraging effects on the enhancement of self-concept of the speech disordered students.

Empirically, Arinze (2018) result showed that the REBT proved to be potent on enhancing the self-concept of the participants in the experimental group than those in the control group. Also, Nzedu (2014) result indicated that the physically challenged students in the experimental group performed better than those in the control group in overcoming their self-concept challenges using REBT. Similarly, Ekechukwu (2018) revealed that, REBT is an effective and rewarding technique in the treatment of aggressive behaviour among secondary school adolescents. Aurooj and Ijaz (2018) study provides evidence that Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy can effectively alleviate social anxiety particularly the features of fear, avoidance, and other physiological symptoms that causes hinderance for a person’s well-being irrespective of gender.

Speech disordered students set up barriers of aloofness, of unsocial behaviour or of inferiority feelings to offset their inadequacies and unsatisfactory human relationships. Their functioning in social, educational, and economic aspects of life is hindered as a result of their challenge and their self-perception. Thus, they experience stigmatization, labelling, ridicule, self-hostility, and poor self-perception. They then resort to self-damaging fantasies of inabilities in adjusting to schoolwork and community life. The researchers therefore ask, what is the effect of REBT in enhancing the self-concept of handicapped students in Owerri Educational Zone 1 of Imo State?

The main purpose of this study is to ascertain the effect of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy on the self-concept of male and female speech disordered students in Owerri Educational Zone 1 of Imo State. Specifically, the study is set out to ascertain;

1. The effect of REBT on self-concept of speech disordered students as measured by their mean scores at pre-test and post-test
2. The effect of REBT on self-concept of speech disordered male and female students as measured by their mean scores at post-test.
3. The retention of the effect of REBT on self-concept of speech disordered male and female students when compared with those in the control group using the follow-up test scores.

This study was guided by the following research questions;

1. What is the self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test?
2. What is the self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test?
3. What is the retention of the effect of REBT on self-concept of speech disordered students when compared with those in control using their follow-up test mean scores?

The following hypotheses which were tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study.

Ho₁: The self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test are not significantly different.

Ho_2: The self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test are not significantly different.

Ho₃: The self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at control group at follow-up assessment are not significantly different.

METHODS

The design of this study is quasi experiment which involved the pre-test, treatment, post-test with control group approach. Quasi Experiment is study where random assignment of participants is experimental and control groups is not possible (Nworgwu, 2015). The population of the study was made up of 2,187 students who exhibited speech disorder in all pubic secondary schools in Owerri Education Zone of Imo State. The researchers sampled 40 students for the study. The sampling techniques employed are purposive and cluster. The instruments for data collection of this study were a researchers made instruments titled: Speech Disordered Students Identification Scale (SDSIS) and Speech Disordered Students Self-Concept Scale (SDSSCS) which was adequately validated and found to be reliable at 0.81 and 0.85 coefficients respectively using Cronbach alpha statistics. The speech disordered student’s identification scale (SDSIS) was used to identify students that have speech disorder in school during the pre-test. The treatment lasted for six weeks using one-hour per section. The experimental group was treated with Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, while the control group received Conventional Counselling from the researchers on study habit. At the end of the treatment, the SDSIS was reshuffled and re-administered to both the experimental and control groups. In doing this, the researcher’s ensured good testing conditions and the instruments were retrieved on the spot to avoid possible losses. After four weeks, the post-test follow-up test was given to experimental and control group by administering the Speech Disordered Student Self-Concept Scale (SDSSCS). This was to find out the retention of the effect of REBT at an interval of four weeks. Data collected were analysed using mean score and standard deviation to answer the research questions. The hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance.

RESULTS

Research Question 1

RQ₁: What is the self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test?

Table 1: Descriptive statistics used for the analyses of the self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test.

Mean (X), Standard Deviation (S) and Sample Size (n)

Descriptive Statistics

Pre-Test

Post-Test

Table 1 show the descriptive statistics used for the analyses of the self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test. The result shows that the students with speech disorder behaviour experimentally treated with REBT had a pre-test mean score of 34.70 and an increase post-test mean score of 65.20, but the students with speech disorder behaviour under the control group had pre-test mean score of 33.70 and a post-test mean score of 36.85. It was also seen that there is a far distance between standard deviation and the mean scores of the groups showing that there is homogeneity of scores in the distribution. The result of the gap among the means at pre-test and post-test showed that REBT is effective in the improvement of self-concept of students with speech disorder behaviour.

Hypothesis 1

Ho₁: The self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test are not significantly different.

Table 2: Inferential statistics used for the test of the self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test

ANCOVA F-test statistics

Tests of Between Subjects Effects

Dependent Variable: Post-Test

R Squared= .890 (Adjusted R Squared= .884)

Table 2 shows the inferential statistics used for the self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test. It was indicated that the F-calculated value for post-test effect is 287.582 with significance probability of 0.000 which is less than 0.05. This indicates that the post-test effect is significant at 0.05 level of significance (p<0.05). This showed a significant difference between the groups at post-test in favour of REBT group. The researchers therefore rejected the null hypothesis and accepted the alternative hypothesis, that is to say that the self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT and control group pre-test and post-test are significantly different.

Research Question 2

RQ₂: What is the self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test?

Table 3: Descriptive statistics used for the analyses of the self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test.

Mean (X), Standard Deviation (S), and Sample size (n)

Descriptive Statistics

Post-Test

Table 3 shows the descriptive statistics used for the analyses of the concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test. The result shows that no much difference exists between the male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test. It was seen that the treatment slightly improved the make participant’s self-concept more than the female participants as their mean scores at post-test were (M=65.30 & F=65.10) respectively. The result concludes that REBT is effective in the improvement of their self-concept of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour.

Hypothesis 2

Ho₂: The self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test are not significantly different.

Table 4: Inferential statistics used for the test of the self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test.

ANCOVA F-test statistics

Test of Between-Subjects Effects

Dependent Variable: Post-Test

R Squared = .001 (Adjusted R Squared=-.116)

Table 4 shows inferential statistics used for the test of the self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test. The result indicated that the F-calculated value for gender post-test effects is .001 with significance probability of 0.981 which is greater than 0.05. This indicates that the gender post-test effect is not significant at 0.05 level of significance (p<0.05). This shows a no significant difference between the mean scores of male students treated with REBT at post-test. The researchers therefore accepted the null hypothesis and concluded that the self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test are not significantly different.

Research Question 3

Ro₃: What is the retention of the effect of REBT on Self-concept of Speech Disordered Students when compared with those in control group using their retention test mean scores?

Table 4: Post-test and retention test speed disorder mean scores of students treated with REBT and those in the control group

Mean (x) Standard (S) Sample size (n)

Table 4: Shows that the students treated with REBT has post-test mean score of 65.20 and retention test mean score of 62.10 with lost mean of 3.10. Therefore, the self-concept of speech disordered students who were treated with REBT retained while those in the control remained with the disorder as indicated in their follow-up scores.

Hypothesis 3

H_o3: The self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at control group at retention assessment are not significantly different.

Table 5: ANCOVA on the retention of the effect of REBT on Self-concept of speech disorder behaviour of students when compared with those in the control group.

In the table, it was observed that at 0.05 level of significance, 1df numerator and 19df denominator, the calculated F is 4.357 with P-value of 0.01 which is less than 0.05. Therefore, the third null hypothesis is rejected. This signifies that the retention of effect of REBT on speech disorder behaviour among students is significant.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

The findings of this study indicate that REBT is effective in the improvement of self-concept of students with speech disorder behaviour, when tested, it was confirmed that the self-concept mean scores of students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT and control group at pre-test and post-test are significantly different. This proves that rational emotive behaviour therapy is an effective psychotherapy that helps in the improvement of self-concept of people with speech disorder. This implies that comparing the control group and REBT group, it shows that rational emotive behaviour therapy was effective in the improvement of self-concept of students with speech disorder behaviour. This finding is in line with Arinze (2018) results which showed that the REBT proved to be potent on enhancing the self-concept of the participants in the experimental group than those in the control group. Also, Nzedu (2014) result indicated that the physically challenged students in the experimental group performed better than those in the control group in overcoming their self-concept challenges using REBT. Similarly, Ekechukwu (2018) revealed that, REBT is an effective and rewarding technique in the treatment of aggressive behaviour among secondary school adolescents. The similarities recorded above could be attributed with the use of similar treatment.

The study also revealed that REBT is effective in the improvement of the self-concept of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour, when tested, it was confirmed that the self-concept mean scores of male and female students with speech disorder behaviour treated with REBT at post-test are not significantly different. This shows that REBT is not a gender sensitive treatment, hence gender is not a significant factor in the improvement of the self-concept of students with speech disorder behaviour. In agreement with the finding, Aurooj and Ijaz (2018) study provides evidence that Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy can effectively alleviate social anxiety particularly the features of fear, avoidance, and other physiological symptoms that causes hinderance for a person’s well-being irrespective of gender. This finding proves the non-influence of gender on the treatment.

Another finding of this study revealed that the effect of REBT among speech disordered students who participated in the experiment was significantly retained four weeks after the experiment. This was evidenced by their retention test scores and the test of null hypothesis three shows that REBT has a lasting effect on speech disordered students. This finding is in consonance with the report of Kendra (2024) who emphasized that REBT is an action-oriented approach that is focused on helping people deal with irrational beliefs and learn how to manage their emotions, thoughts and behaviour in a healthier, more realistic way. Also, Badejo and Anyanwu (2016) have the opinion that REBT is a Counselling Therapy which is widely used in hanging behaviours.

CONCLUSION

The study concludes that rational emotive behaviour therapy significantly improves self-concept of speech disordered students irrespective of their gender. Based on findings of this study and the discussions that followed, the researchers concluded that REBT is effective in self-concept of male and female speech disordered student in Imo State. It was also concluded that REBT is not a gender sensitive treatment, hence gender is not a significant factor in the improvement of the self-concept of students with speech disorder behaviour. Furthermore, the effect of REBT was significantly retained four weeks after the experimental treatment.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings of this study; the following recommendations were made:

1. Counsellors should make use of rational emotive behaviour therapy in the treatment of low self-concept among students with speech disorder
2. The school administrators should organize and sponsor school counsellors on workshops, exhibitions, seminars, and conferences on a regular basis in order to update their knowledge, expressing, and drilling them on the use of rational emotive behaviour therapy.
3. School Counsellors and teachers should ensure early identification of students with speech disorder
4. REBT should be adopted by Counsellors and other therapists as an effective counselling technique in improving self-concept or speech disordered students.

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