Efficacy of Cognitive Therapy on the Management of Psychological Distress among Adolescents with Hearing Impairment in Oyo State

Abstract

This study investigated the efficacy of Cognitive Therapy (CT) on the managementof Psychological Distress (PD) among adolescents with hearingimpairment in Oyo State. The pretest-posttest control group, quasi experimentalresearch design was employed. A total of 53 adolescents with hearingimpairment from three integrated secondary schools in two senatorial districtsof Oyo State were purposively selected for the study. Kesler PsychologicalDistress Scale with the index score of 19 and above was the screeningtool used to determine the adolescents with PD. Participants were randomlyassigned to CT (31) and control (22) groups. The treatment lasted 10 weeks.Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (r=0.71), Rosenberg Self-esteem,Rating (r=0.58) and Kesler Psychological Distress (r=0.63) scales were usedfor data collection. Data collected were analysed using Analysis of Covarianceand Bonferronni post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance. Results showedthat participants in the CT group managed their PD better than those in thecontrol group. Participants with high self-esteem benefitted from the treatmentthan those with moderate and low self-esteem. Based on these findings,special educators, counselling and clinical psychologists and social workersare advised to use the therapy to manage psychological distress among adolescentswith hearing impairment.