EFFECT OF COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING TECHNIQUE ON TEST ANXIETY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Cognitive Restructuring Technique (CRT) on test anxiety among secondary school students in Edo State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. A non-randomized pre-test, post-test control group quasi-experimental research design was adopted. The population comprised 1,860 Senior Secondary School Two (SS2) students identified with significant symptoms of test anxiety in public secondary schools in Edo State. A sample of 112 students was purposively selected from three public secondary schools with the highest prevalence of test anxiety and assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. The instrument for data collection was the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) developed by Spielberger (1980), which has established validity and reliability for use in Nigeria. The intervention lasted eight weeks, during which participants in the experimental group received Cognitive Restructuring Technique, while the control group received conventional counselling. Data were analysed using mean and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that Cognitive Restructuring Technique significantly reduced test anxiety among secondary school students and was significantly more effective than conventional counselling. The study further found no significant difference in the effectiveness of Cognitive Restructuring Technique between male and female students, indicating that the intervention was equally effective across gender. It was concluded that Cognitive Restructuring Technique is an effective counselling intervention for reducing test anxiety among secondary school students. The study recommended that school counsellors should integrate Cognitive Restructuring Technique into school counselling programmes to improve students' emotional well-being and academic performance.