The effects of an educative program in rational emotive techniques on early adolescents

The effectiveness of conducting an educative program in Rational Emotive concepts and techniques with high school students was investigated. A sample of thirty adolescents, ages fourteen and fifteen was used, with fifteen subjects each in the experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in a six week study group on Rational Emotive Education, with the researcher as the instructor.

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Adult (Irrational) Ideas Inventory were administered as a pretest, revealing no significant differences between groups on these two measures. Following the treatment, the two instruments were again administered. Due to the wide variation of individual subject's scores, no significant difference in mean score change between the two groups was revealed.

Such findings do not support previous research with older age-groups, and raise some questions regarding the usefulness of Rational Emotive Theory for early adolescents, the validity of the instruments for the adolescent age-group, and the need for more counselor experience in order to facilitate change.