SOURCE:

Faculty: Education
Department: Guidance And Counselling

CONTRIBUTORS:

Ahiaogu I. Celestina
Anagbogu M. A.

ABSTRACT:

Self-esteem is the basis for all motivated behaviour through interaction with the environment for students, especially those in the secondary schools. This study investigated the effects of assertiveness training and self-instruction techniques on secondary school students’ low self-esteem in Orlu Education Zone, Imo state. The design of the study was quasi experimental, non-randomized pre-test and post-test, control group design. Five research questions guided the study and five null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significances. The population of students with low self-esteem was 1,850. a sample of 144 SS 1 male and female secondary school students with low self-esteem selected for the study, and purposive sampling technique was used in choosing three schools with the highest number of low self-esteem in the area of the study. Index of Self-esteem developed by Hudson in 1982 was used for data collection. Index of Self-esteem have both validity and reliability index of 0.93 that was established by Onighaiye in1996. Mean score was used in answering the research questions and ANCOVA was used in testing the five null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The mean score norm of 30.89 for female students and 32.04 for male students provided in Index of Self-esteem manual guided the decision. The findings of the study showed that assertiveness training technique was slightly more effective than self-instruction technique in treating students’ low self-esteem. Also there was no significant difference in the effect of assertiveness training and self-instruction techniques on secondary school students’ low self-esteem. Recommendations included that the use of assertiveness training and self-instruction techniques by guidance counsellors should commence in full force in secondary schools irrespective of students gender and age as a way of enhancing students’ low self-esteem. Also, the government and nongovernmental organisations should fund training programmes on assertiveness and self-instruction techniques through workshops, seminars for equipping teachers, counselling psychologists and other significant others in order to assist in the enhancement of students’ low self-esteem.