Adolescent stage or adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development in the life of young persons. Adomeh [2] sees it as a period of transition from childhood to adulthood and this critical developmental period is normally marked by numerous physical, psychological and social changes. Adolescents are a segment of the population with an age range between 10-19 years. It could be divided into three stages of: young adolescents (10-12years), mid-age adolescents (13-16years) and old adolescents (17-19years). In-school adolescents within these ages grouping, largely see it as a time of experimentation, exploration, curiosity and identity search. It is also a period that is characterized by several sexual and emotional challenges.

Emotional adjustment of an individual can be seen as a person’s tendency to distinguish, evaluate and handle their emotional states and that of others’ to attain certain objectives. It describes the mechanism, approaches, coping patterns and competency skills that a person possesses in handling assertiveness, temper, sadness, anger, disturbances and chaos et cetera. Sasikumar [3] identified three components of emotional adjustment, namely: self-control, social assertiveness and anxiety control. The components fall into three clusters such as self-control (understanding of how to manage ones’ emotions), social assertiveness (managing emotional behavior among peers and others) and anxiety control (ability to manage situations that could make one nervous, apprehensive and unstable). Some therapeutic programmes may be used to foster such competencies. In this paper, the focus is on two of such therapeutic programmes – Bibliocounselling and Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. 

Bibliocounselling simply put, is the use of books as a therapeutic vehicle in psychological counselling processes.

According to Baskar [4] books can make a difference in children’s health, both physically and emotionally. Bilgin [5] on his part stated that books do not only facilitate the process of self-discovery when read by the patient, they are also powerful sources of healing. This could be so because more detailed stories may affect communication effectively because of their characteristics as being interactive, teaching by attraction, bypassing resistance, engaging, and nurturing imagination. In addition, stories educate, teach values, discipline, build experience, facilitate problem-solving, change, and heal [6]. Therapeutic reading therefore has been used in formal psychotherapy and counselling by professionals [7]. The concept of “bibliotherapy” was derived from the Greek words: biblio meaning “book” and therapia meaning “healing”. Simply put, it means: “books for healing”. Bibliotherapy is known by many other names such as bibliocounselling, biblio-guidance, biblio-psychology, book matching, literatherapy, library therapeutics, literapeutics, reading therapy [5].

There are many definitions of bibliocounselling from the simple to the more complex. For example, Schrank and Engels [8] defined bibliocounselling as a means of helping individuals to gain an understanding of the self and his/her environment; learn from those who had experienced similar situations so that they can solve encountered problems in similar ways. This definition however limits bibliotherapy to the area of personal problems. As a well-known researcher concerning bibliocounselling studies, Silverberg [9] and Abdullah [10] defined bibliocounselling as the therapeutic usage of the literature to help people overcome some problems such as emotional and mental problems and adjustment changes in their lives. Books have thus been accepted as an adjunct to counselling to guide children’s thinking, strengthen their character, shape their behavior, and help to solve their problems [9]. Consequently, bibliocounselling is said to help people to grow and develop in personality and adapt to changes more effectively [11]. The common thread of most of the definitions of bibliocounselling is that bibliocounselling requires some form of reading.

The Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy [REBT], focuses on uncovering irrational belief, which may lead to unhealthy negative emotions and replacing them with more productive rational alternatives. The therapy framework was first propounded by Albert Ellis in 1957 as Rational Emotive Therapy [RET]. Ellis believes that some of the irrational beliefs of men and women have over the years caused a lot of problems for them. Here are the common, fairly obvious irrational ideas described by Albert Ellis [12] which create unwanted irrational emotions:

• Everyone should love and approve of me (If they don’t, I feel awful and unlovable)

• I should always be able, successful, and on top of things’ (If I’m not, I’m inadequate and incompetent person)

• People who are evil and bad should be punished severely (and I have the right to get upset if they aren’t stopped and made to’ pay the price’) and so on

   

Ellis [12] suggests that the tendencies to have these irrational ideas are inborn. That is, obsessing about something we want badly evolves into absolute demands. How does this happen? Human beings forget the probabilities and risks involved in their irrational self-talk. They over-look their lack of ability and determination. They deny that their strong feelings need help (when they are wrong). They fail to see that their strong emotions like anger, fears and weaknesses are frequently reinforced. They aren’t aware of their defense mechanisms. They may acquire emotional responses without words, for example, via conditioning and modelling; they prefer to change the situation rather than their thinking (get a divorce rather than deal with their anger, flunk out of school rather than cope with their overwhelming need for fun). 

Although human beings always seek escape routes out of their identified problems, sooner than later they realize that such problems are not resolved by drinking alcohol, socializing with friends, involvement in cult activities, medication and so on. They convince themselves they cannot really change (and, therefore, do not try very hard). Thus, irrational thinking becomes the easy way out. In order to assist the client, the REBT therapist should engage the client in an educational process that directly teaches the client how to identify and replace irrational and self-defeating beliefs with more rational and self-helping ones. One of the main objectives in REBT is to show the learner that how they perceive and interpret the events in their lives has a direct impact on how they feel. The central aim of REBT is therefore to increase the clients’ adaptability with the introduction of a more rational and constructive philosophy of themselves, others and the world [13].

Several studies have been carried out on the level of emotional adjustment, Bibliocounselling (BC) and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). For instance, Okorodudu and Okorodudu [14] investigated patterns of emotional adjustment among adolescents in secondary educational institutions in Oredo Local Government Area, Edo State. The study adopted the survey research method. The cluster random sampling technique was used to select three hundred students from a population of 3,432 in-school adolescents. The emotional adjustment survey questionnaire was used. The research findings indicated that there was no significant difference in the physical adjustment, the emotional adjustment, the psychological adjustment, the social adjustment of students in respect to gender. The overall level of emotional adjustment was found to be low.

Similarly, Adomeh and Egbon [15] carried out a study to find out whether bibliotherapy is effective in reducing test anxiety among in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria, using the pre-post two group experimental design. The simple random sampling technique as used in the study to select twenty-seven students into the experimental group and twenty-six students into the control group. After treatment, the result indicated a significant reduction in the level of test anxiety among the subjects based on the exposure to bibliotherapy intervention programme.

Adomeh and Enokela [15] focused on the students’ perception of the effectiveness of bibliotherapy in fostering their emotional adjustment in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. They used the descriptive survey design in carrying out their study with a sample of four hundred and eighty-two students who were randomly selected from the six council areas that make up the FCT. The result showed that bibliotherapy was perceived to be an effective treatment in fostering students’ emotional adjustment.

Makwana and Kaji [16] examined the comparative effectiveness of Rational Emotional Adjustment of In-school adolescents in relation to their gender, namely boys and girls in Kuli, Malawi. The design of the study was descriptive in nature. The population and sample drawn were 1209 and 200 students respectively. The accidental sampling technique was used in the study. Two instruments were used in the study, namely: Demographic Profile Questionnaire and Emotional Adjustment Scale (EAS). The result showed that their level of emotional adjustment was high.

With regards to the efficacy of various therapies fostering various positive behaviors and on remedying behavioral disorders, several studies have also been carried out in and outside Nigeria. Yahaya and Mustapha [17] examined the efficacy of Client-Centered and Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapies in reducing bullying behavior among in-school adolescents in Ilorin, Nigeria. The study adopted the quasi-experimental research method using a 3×2 factorial design made up of three (3) row groups (two experimental and one control). Stratified random sampling technique was used to select three secondary schools on the basis of location to prevent experimental contamination. A self-report questionnaire was used to purposively select the participants (62 adolescents). The primary dependent variable was bullying behavior and respondents with a high score on bullying items and low scores on victimization items were selected to participate in the treatment. The findings revealed a significant reduction in the bullying behavior of the in-school adolescents exposed to experimental treatments. It was thereby concluded that Client-Centered Therapy [CCT] and Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy [REBT] produced a significant reduction in the bullying behavior of the in-school adolescents

Adomeh [18] sought to find out the efficacy of REBT in fostering emotional adjustment among Nigerian adolescents. The post-test-only control group Design was used for the study. Twenty-five subjects were systematically selected as sample for each group of experimental and control. The result showed that REBT was effective in reducing anxiety and stress among the respondents as against the control group.

Ajidahun [19] examined the comparative effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy [REBT] and Client Centered Therapy (CCT) in enhancing the self-concept of adolescents. It also examined the extent to which age of subjects could affect the efficacy of REBT and CCT in enhancing adolescents’ self-concept. The sample for the study consisted of 150 adolescents randomly selected from three secondary schools in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The study made use of 3×3 factional design with two experimental groups exposed to REBT and CCT and one control group. The subjects were randomly assigned to each of the two treatment groups and control group with fifty subjects in each group. The experimental and the control groups were exposed to pretest and posttest of “self-scale” questionnaire measuring the different experiences of adolescents in early, middle, late adolescence. One of the experimental groups was exposed to treatment based on REBT while the other was exposed to treatment based on CCT. The treatment consisted of three sessions of 40 minutes each running through a period of eight weeks. The data were analyzed using analysis of covariance. The results of the analyses showed that REBT and CCT were effective in significantly solving the self-concept problems of adolescents. It was equally found that the self-concept of adolescents exposed to the experimental groups was significantly different from one another with REBT being more effective than CCT.

Ntamu [20] investigated the effect of REBT in curbing examination malpractice behavior among in-school adolescents in Calabar Municipality area of Cross River State. The research design adopted for this study was the pretest-posttest control group experimental design. The sample consisted of 80 senior in-school adolescents purposively selected for the study. The Instrument used for data collection was the Student Examination Malpractice Questionnaire (SEMQ). The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were established. Two research questions were answered and two hypotheses were tested at .05 significance level. The results showed that REBT had a significant effect on the two variables (wrong values and desire for certificates) of examination malpractice tested, with p. values of .008 and .03 respectively.

The foregoing shows that, studies on the effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in fostering positive outcome behaviors like emotional stability or adjustment among others exist in literature. However, studies on whether Bibliocounselling and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy can effectively foster emotional adjustment among in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria are not readily available to the researchers. To fill this gap, this study sought to find out the effectiveness of Bibliocounselling and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in fostering emotional adjustment among in-school adolescents in the state by providing answers to the following research questions:

• What is the level of emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria in the treatments and control group

• Is there any effect of Bibliocounselling on emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria

• What is the effect of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy on emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria

• Is there any difference in the level of emotional adjustment of students exposed to Bibliocounselling treatment and those exposed to Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy treatment

Hypotheses

The hypotheses below were formulated and tested in this study:

• There is no significant effect of Bibliocounselling on the emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria

• There is no significant effect of Rational Emotive behavior Therapy on the emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria

• There is no significant difference in the level of emotional adjustment of adolescents exposed to Bibliocounselling treatment and those exposed to Rational Emotive behavior Therapy treatment

The quasi-experimental research design of the non-randomized pre-test-post-test control group design type was used in this study. The population of the study is 1,783 adolescents. The sample size is 45, which consists of 15 participants drawn for the first treatment (Bibliocounselling), 15 for the second treatment (Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy) and 15 for the control group (personal Health/Hygiene teaching). The sample of the study is as shown in Table 1.

Key

• NR: Non-random assignment of treatment to the groups 

• E₁: Experimental group one 

• E₂: Experimental group two

• C: Control group (Personal Health/Hygiene teaching)

• 0₁: Measures of the dependent variables before treatment

• X₁: The experimental or independent variables (Bibliocounselling - BC) 

• X₂: The experimental or independent variables (Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy - REBT) 

• 0₂: Measures of the dependent variables immediately after treatment 

Emotional Adjustment Scale (EAS) developed by Kulvan [1] was adapted as the instrument for data collection. The scale has 15-items that measures Emotional Adjustment of learners of school age. With an overall Cronbach reliability alpha of .83, the specific properties of the scale (EAS) cover behavioral tendencies (α= .78, items 1-5), nervousness (α= .85, items 6-10), and socio-dispositional control (α= .88, items 11-15). In adapting the scale, two things were adjusted. First, phrases like “I get mad” was replaced with “I get angry” during domestication of the scale. Second, the response rating of five on a Strongly Agree (5) to Strongly Disagree (1) was reduced to four-point response rating by removing the neutral stem of neither disagree nor agree (3). This thereby reduced the benchmark score of 3.00 to 2.50. Hence, all the items were rated on a four-point likert scale of Strongly Agreed (SA) -4, Agreed (A) -3, Disagreed (D) -2 and Strongly Disagreed (SD) -1. Hence, a score of 2.5 and above reflect high emotional adjustment while a score below 2.5 reflects the low emotional adjustment. This implies that inclusion criteria into the various treatment groups were based on those that had an emotional adjustment mean score below 2.5. 

Table 1: Non-Randomized (NR) pre-test-post-test Control Group Design

Content validity on the instrument was carried out by two experts in Guidance and Counselling in the Department of Guidance and Counselling, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. A reliability coefficient of 0.85 was obtained using Cronbach Alpha reliability technique. This indicated that the instrument was reliable for the study. In other to administer the instruments, permission was taken from the principals of the targeted secondary schools in the state. The two treatment or experimental groups (Bibliocounselling and Rational Emotive behavior Therapy) and the control group (Personal Health/Hygiene teaching) were exposed to 45 minutes each of five (5) sessions of the respective therapies and Personal Health/Hygiene teaching. Each of the participants in the treatments and control group has five (5) contact sessions of therapy. The treatment commenced with an address by the researcher to the experimental groups on the reason for the programme, the rules of the programme, the need to be involved, the need to feel free to discuss their concerns and ask questions when the need arises. 

Participants in the control group were not exposed to any of the treatment therapies but they were exposed to personal health/hygiene teaching. The mean and standard deviation was used to analyze Research Question 1. Hypotheses 1 and 2 were tested with the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) while hypothesis 3 was tested with the t-test for two independent sample means. The hypotheses were all tested at 0.05 level of significance.

The results of the study are presented as follows. 

Research Question 1 

What is the level of emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria in the treatments and control group?

Table 2 shows that the mean and standard deviation scores on emotional adjustment of the students before treatments (BC and REBT) were all below 2.10; while the control group had a mean of emotional adjustment score of 2.19. On the other hand, after treatment, the outcome of their post-test stage showed some improvement of 2.35 for BC, 3.42 for REBT and a fairly improved increase for those in the control group (2.22). A clear look at the mean scores in the pretest and posttest stages show that students exposed to the treatment groups adjusted better in their emotions while very minimal improvement was recorded for those in the control group.

Table 2: Mean and Standard Deviation of In-School Adolescents on Level of Emotional Adjustment in the Treatments and Control Groups

Hypothesis 1

There is no significant effect of Bibliocounselling on the emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria.

Result in Table 3 shows that the calculated f-value of 60.388 for Bibliocounselling is statistically significant (p<0.05). Thus, the null hypothesis was rejected. This shows that there is a significant effect of Bibliocounselling on emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria. This implies that the emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria, can be fostered with Bibliocounselling.

Table 3: ANCOVA on the Effect of Bibliocounselling on Emotional Adjustment of In-school Adolescents

*Significant at 0.05 level of significance, Dependent Variable: Emotional Adjustment

Hypothesis 2

There is no significant effect of Rational Emotive behavior Therapy on emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria

Result in Table 4 shows that the calculated f-value of 32.261 for Rational Emotive behavior Therapy is statistically significant (p<0.05). Thus, the null hypothesis was rejected. This shows that there is a significant effect of Rational Emotive behaviors Therapy on emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria. This implies that the emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria can be fostered with Rational Emotive behavior Therapy.

Table 4: ANCOVA on the Effect of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy on Emotional Adjustment of In-school Adolescents

*Significant at 0.05 level of significance, Dependent Variable: Emotional Adjustment

Hypothesis 3

There is no significant difference in the level of emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents exposed to Bibliocounselling treatment and those exposed to Rational Emotive behavior Therapy treatment.

Result in Table 5 shows that the calculated t-value of 2.317 is statistically significant (p<0.05). Therefore, the null hypothesis is retained. This indicates that there is a significant difference in the level of emotional adjustment of students exposed to Bibliocounselling treatment and those exposed to Rational Emotive behavior Therapy treatment. This further implies that the effect of Bibliocounselling treatment in fostering emotional adjustment among the participants was different from those that were exposed to Rational Emotive behavior Therapy (REBT).

Table 5: Test of differences in the mean scores of Bibliocounselling (BC) and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

In order to find out which, of the therapies was more effective than the other, the mean scores obtained from both treatment were compared. With a mean score of 3.43 for REBT and a mean score of 2.38 for BC; the t-test shows that the mean score difference of 1.07 is significant. Since REBT has a higher mean score than BC and the p-value or probability value of 0.028 (2.8%) is less than 0.05 (5%) level of significance; it is evident that REBT is more effective than BC in fostering emotional adjustment among the participants in the study.

The Level of Emotional Adjustment of In-School Adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria 

The result of the analysis of the level of emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria, shows that the pre-test indicates that the level of emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in the area studied was low generally. This could be due to the general situation of our school system presently, personal demands from the students, types of school the students are attending, pressure from both peers and teachers, and even the location of the schools and availability of facilities in the school. Although the treated groups improved significantly, at the end of the experimental period there would have been a better improvement if the aforementioned variables were held in constant control. All the same, the result of the present study agreed with that of Okorodudu and Okorodudu [14] who found that the overall level of emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Oredo Local Government Area was low. Of specific note here is that both studies [that of Okorodudu and Okorodudu [14] and the current one] were carried out in the same Edo State. The result however, disagreed with that of Makwana and Kaji [16] who found that the emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in relation to their sex in Kuli, Malawi was high.

Effectiveness of Bibliocounselling in Fostering Emotional Adjustment in Edo State, Nigeria 

The result of the analysis of the effectiveness of Bibliocounselling in fostering emotional adjustment in Edo State, Nigeria, shows that there is a significant effect of Bibliocounselling on emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria. The result of this study may be due to the fact that bibliocounselling as a therapy is a means of helping learners to comprehend themselves and their learning situations. The result agrees with Baskar [4] who affirmed that books can make a difference in a child’s health emotionally. Similarly when books are used as therapy they facilitate the self-discovery process [5]. The result supports that of Adomeh and Egbon [21] who found that bibliotherapy is an effective means of reducing test anxiety among in-school adolescents in Edo state, Nigeria. Also the result of the present study is in line with the study carried out by Adomeh and Enokela [15] that bibliocounselling is effective in fostering emotional adjustment among junior in-school adolescents. The result corroborates that of Nurten [22] who revealed that the “Self-Esteem Enrichment Bibliocounselling Program” employed to the treatment group produced a significant increase in treatment group subjects’ self-esteem scores.

Effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in fostering emotional adjustment in Edo State, Nigeria 

The result of the analysis of the effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in fostering emotional adjustment in Edo State, Nigeria shows that there is a significant effect of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) in fostering emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria. The result of this study is justifiable based on the fact that REBT sought to mainly replace irrational belief with rational belief and man will ordinarily want to escape from his problem and he will adopt any means he found useful for doing that. The result agrees with that of Adomeh [18] who found that REBT is an effective means of fostering emotional adjustment among Nigerian students. The result corroborates Ntamu [20] who found that REBT had a significant effect on the two variables (wrong values and desire for certificates) of examination malpractice tested, with p. values of .008 and .03 respectively.

Differential effectiveness of Bibliocounselling and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in fostering emotional adjustment in Edo State, Nigeria

The result of the analysis of the differential effectiveness of Bibliocounselling and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in fostering emotional adjustment in Edo State, Nigeria, shows that there is a significant difference in the level of emotional adjustment of students exposed to Bibliocounselling [BC] treatment and those exposed to Rational Emotional Behavior Therapy [REBT] treatment as those exposed to REBT had higher emotional adjustment than those exposed to BC. The result agrees with that of Ajidahun [19] who noted That Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and Client Centered Therapy were effective in significantly solving the self-concept problems of adolescents. It was equally found that the self-concept of adolescents exposed to the experimental groups was significantly different from one another with REBT being more effective than CCT. The result is also in line with that of Yahaya and Mustapha [17] who found that a significant reduction in the bullying behavior of the in-school adolescents exposed to experimental treatments; Client-Centered Therapy [CCT] produced a significant reduction in the bullying behavior among the in-school adolescents, and Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy [REBT] produced a significant reduction in the bullying behavior of the in-school adolescents.

Bibliocounselling [BC] and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy [REBT] are both helpful therapeutic interventions that can be used to foster positive emotional behavior among in-school adolescents.

Recommendations 

The following recommendations were made based on the findings of the study:

• This study found that students in our school are not well adjusted to the school environment emotionally; it is therefore recommended that effort should be made to assist them to get well emotionally adjusted.

• Since both methods (Bibliocounselling and Rational Emotional Behavior Therapy) are effective in fostering emotional adjustment among in-school adolescents; Counsellors, parents/guardian and school authorities are at liberty to use any of the intervention programmes to help students develop a rational perspective towards their emotions and that of others

• Finally, since in-school adolescents exposed to REBT showed more improvement in the level of their emotional adjustment, it is recommended that given the options, counsellors should first chose REBT and if necessary support it with BC

1. Kulvan, B. “Validation and development of the Emotional Adjustment Scale (EAS).” Journal of Psychoanalysis, vol. 8, no. 3, 2017, pp. 23-34.

2. Adomeh, I.O.C. Differential effectiveness of two counselling methods of fostering emotional adjustment among adolescents. PhD dissertation, University of Benin, 1997.

3. Sasikumar, N.M. “Promoting emotional adjustment: Well-being of Nigerian children and critical issues for early childhood teacher education.” JISTE, vol. 20, no. 1, 2018, pp. 6-18.

4. Başkar, S.V. Özsaygının bazı değişkenler açısından incelenmesi. Master’s thesis, Ankara University, 2016.

5. Bilgin, S. Ergenlerde kaygı ile benlik saygısı arasındaki ilişki. Master’s thesis, Istanbul University, 2014.

6. Burns, G.W. 101 healing stories for kids and teens: Using metaphors in therapy. John Wiley & Sons, 2004.

7. Bogenç, A.A. Grupla psikolojik danışmanın suçlu gençlerin kendine saygı düzeylerine etkisi. Doctoral dissertation, Ankara University, 2001.

8. Schrank, F.A. and Engels, D.W. “Bibliotherapy as a counselling adjunct: Research findings.” The Personnel and Guidance Journal, vol. 60, 1981, pp. 143-147.

9. Silverberg, L. “Bibliotherapy: The therapeutic use of didactic and literary texts in treatment, diagnosis, prevention, and training.” Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, vol. 103, no. 3, 2003, pp. 131-135.

10. Abdullah, M.H. “Bibliotherapy.” ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English and Communication, 2016, http://reading .indiana.edu/ieo/digests/d177.html.

11. Shechtman, Z. “Bibliotherapy: An indirect approach to treatment of childhood aggression.” Child Psychiatry and Human Development, vol. 30, no. 1, 1987, pp. 39-53.

12. Ellis, A. “Rational and irrational beliefs in counselling psychology.” Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy, vol. 8, 1957, pp. 221-233.

13. Adaji, S.E. et al. “The attitudes of Kenyan in-school adolescents toward sexual autonomy.” African Journal of Reproductive Health, vol. 14, no. 1, 2017, pp. 33-42.

14. Okorodudu, R.I. and Okorodudu, G.N. “Patterns of emotional adjustment among adolescents in secondary educational institutions in Nigeria.” International Journal of the Society for Educational Research and Development, vol. 22, no. 3, 2017, pp. 172-185.

15. Adomeh, I.O.C. and Enokela, A.E. “Perception of the effectiveness of bibliotherapy in fostering emotional adjustment among junior secondary school students in FCT, Abuja.” International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature, vol. 7, no. 1, 2020, pp. 10-20.

16. Makwana, M.D. and Kaji, S.M. “Emotional adjustment of in-school adolescents in relation to their gender.” The International Journal of Indian Psychology, vol. 2, no. 1, 2018, pp. 12-23.

17. Yahaya, L.A. and Mustapha, M.L. “Efficacy of client-centred and rational-emotive behaviour therapies in reducing bullying behaviour among in-school adolescents in Ilorin, Nigeria.” International Journal of Instruction, vol. 8, no. 1, 2015, pp. 62-74.

18. Adomeh, I.O.C. “Fostering emotional adjustment among Nigerian adolescents with rational emotive behaviour therapy.” Educational Research Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3, 2006, pp. 21-29.

19. Ajidahun, B. “Effect of rational emotive behaviour therapy and client-centred therapy on age and self-concept of adolescents.” Psychology Behavioural Science, vol. 2, no. 2, 2014, pp. 9-15.

20. Ntamu, B.A. “Effect of rational emotive behaviour therapy on curbing examination malpractice among public in-school adolescents in Calabar Municipality.” International Journal of Scientific Research in Education, vol. 10, no. 4, 2017, pp. 440-450.

21. Adomeh, I.O.C. and Egbon, M. “Effectiveness of bibliocounselling in reducing test anxiety among secondary school students in Edo State, Nigeria.” International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature, vol. 7, no. 1, 2020, pp. 30-43.

22. Nurten, K. The effect of self-esteem enrichment bibliocounselling program on the self-esteem level of sixth grade students. Master’s thesis, Middle East Technical University, 2009.