EFFECTS OF GROUP COUNSELLING TECHNIQUE ON STUDENTS ADDICTED TO TIKTOK USE

Abstract

Background: The need to investigate the effects of group counselling on students addicted to TikTok motivated this study. The study investigated the effects of group counselling technique on students who students addicted to TikTok. Method: Quasi-expermental, non-equivalent pre-test and posttest design was used to assign guidance counselling students drawn from two public universities in Anambra State. Participants: The population of the study consisted of all 200 level students in guidance and counselling who are regular students for the 2022/2023 academic session in the two public universities in Anambra State, Nigeria. The sample for this study comprised 122 students purposively selected from the two universities. A total of 75 students of Guidance and Counselling who are regular students for the 2022/2023 academic session in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka as the experimental group while 47 Guidance and Counselling regular students for the 2022/2023 academic session in Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam was used as the control group. Instrument: TikTok Addiction Interventions Scale (TAIS) developed by the researcher was used for data collection. The instrument was validated and the reliability was also established through Cronbach’s alpha co-efficient method. The intervention covered a 6-week work plan that describes the steps the researcher used to administer treatment to the participants. The treatment lasted for six weeks. Before the experiment commenced, respondents in both experimental and control groups were TAIS as pre-test. At the end of the treatment, the TAIS was administered to both experimental and control groups as posttest. The researcher adopted some measures to minimize the effects of extraneous variables. The data were analysed using appropriate statistics. Results: The later test result revealed that there is a significant difference in the mean scores between students exposed to group GCT (experimental group) and those not exposed to group GCT (control group) as regards Tik Tok addiction. Conclusion: This study concluded that group GCT helped to reduce students’ addiction to TikTok in public universities in Anambra State, Nigeria. Recommendations: Based on the findings of this study, it was among others recommended that mental health professionals and other helping professionals in Nigeria could use GCT in counselling students who are addicted to TikTok. Granted that the severity level of psychological symptoms associated with ATU among students could be minimized using GCT.