SELF-MANAGEMENT THERAPY AND DECISION-MAKING SKILLS

ABSTRACT

Disablist bullying and bullying in general have been identified as an abnormal behaviour disorders in schools. Bullying could affect the development and adjustment of these special need children which may create a serious threat to the pupils’ academic progress and peaceful co-existence in the schools. This study examined Self-Management Therapy and Decision-Making Skills in managing disablist bullying in public special primary schools in Edo State, Nigeria. Sex and age of children in the special primary schools were also examined.  To guide this study, five research questions were raised, five corresponding null hypotheses formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance.

            Quasi-experimental research design was adopted for this study, using pre-test, post-test non-equivalent control group approach. The population of the study consisted of three hundred and sixty-two (362) pupils in the seven public special primary schools in Edo State. A sample of fifty-one (51) pupils made up of the bullies took part in this study. The sample was drawn from primary classes four and five in the three selected special primary schools. Primary six classes were not included in this study because they went for sporting activities and were not on ground at the time of the study. The researcher used stratified sampling technique for this study. The instrument used to collect data for this study was the Bullying Behaviour in School Questionnaire (BBSQ) adapted from Anti-bullying Alliance-Wellbeing Questionnaire. The instrument was scrutinized by the researcher’s supervisors and a test expert in measurement and evaluation all three from the Department of Educational Evaluation and Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Benin. Benin City. The instrument was administered on twenty (20) pupils outside the sample of the study but within the population of the study to establish the reliability of the instrument. Cronbach Alpha Statistics was used to analyze the data collected and Co-efficient reliability-value of 0.822 was obtained. The data collected for this study were analyzed using the descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation while inferential statistics of analysis of Co-Variance (ANCOVA) was used to test all the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.

The findings revealed that there was no significant difference between self-management therapy and the control group in the post-test mean scores but decision-making skills on the other hand had a significant difference in the post-test mean scores. Sex and age had no significant interaction effect with the treatments in managing disablist bullying among the participants. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that decision-making skills be adopted in the various special primary schools by the counsellors so that its’ effectiveness in the management of disablist bullying be sustained.