Effect of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy on Generalized Anxiety Disorder among Junior Secondary School Students in Jere, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) causes a person's life to be full of worries by involving cognitive processes and not tolerating uncertainty and increasing worry and affecting the quality of sleep and attention of these people, and disrupting life functions. The study investigated the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) on anxiety, physical symptoms, worry and attention deficit among Junior Secondary School 2 students (JSS2) with GAD in Jere, Borno state. Quasi-experimental method, pre-test and post-test study with an experimental group and a control group was used in the study. 40 students (17 girls and 23 boys) were used for the study. The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) assessment scale was adapted and used for the study. Cronbach Alpha reliability index was 0.74. Experts in the field of Educational Psychology and Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Education University of Maiduguri corrected and validated the instrument. The SCARED assessment scale was used to identify 20 students with generalized anxiety disorder and were assigned to an experimental group while the other 20 students were randomly selected to serve as control group. The experimental group received CBT for 6 weeks (6 sessions), but the control group did not receive any treatment. Analysis of Covariance, Mean and standard deviation were used to analysis the results of the study. The study showed that there was a significant difference in anxiety symptoms of the experimental group compared to the control group with the f value for anxiety symptoms equal to 119.675, which was significant at the level of 0.05. The study also showed a significant difference in physical symptoms in the experimental group (P< 0.05, F = 65.28) compared to the control group. In the experimental group, there was also a significant difference in worry (F = 376.076) which was significant at the level of 0.05 compared to the control group. The results also showed that there was a significant difference in attention deficit in the experimental group (p<0.05, F= 371.497) compared to the control group which was significant at the level of 0.05. As a result, in the experimental group, there was a significant difference in attention compared to the control group. There was no significant gender difference on the effect of cognitive behaviour therapy intervention on anxiety wiht (F (1,55) = 271, p=.605, with small effect size (partial etha squared = .005).There was also a significant gender difference on the effect of cognitive behaviour therapy on Physical symptoms with (F (1,55) = 14.2, p=.000, with a large effect size (partial etha squared = .206) in favour of male experimental group with a mean score = 61.60 and SD =6.79) and a significant gender difference on the effect of cognitive behaviour therapy on worry (F (1, 55) = 6.65, P=.013, with large effect size (partial etha squared =.108) in favour of male experimental group with a mean score = 62.06 and SD of 4.23. The study also showed no significant gender difference on the effect of cognitive behaviour therapy intervention on attention deficit (F (1,55) =.000, p=.992, with partial etha squared =.000). The results showed that CBT improved anxiety, worry and attention deficit amongst students with GAD.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy, generalized anxiety disorders, Worry, Attention deficit

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