EFFECT OF COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING COUNSELLING THERAPY ON UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS WITH POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN BAUCHI, NIGERIA

Post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the conditions that affect students’ psychological, sociological and overall functioning including of students at the tertiary level. Insecurity issues in Nigeria, particularly, in North East, is a major concern that resulted to different challenges that throw the undergraduate students in to different and ugly traumatic conditions that often leads students to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, sleepless nights, isolation, confusion, unsecure, fear, unhealthy relationships, among others and even thinking of committing suicide. This scenario constitutes the main interest of this research. The aim of this research therefore, was to ascertain the effects of Cognitive Restructuring Therapy on University undergraduate students with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in ATBU Bauchi, Bauchi State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to determine the extent to which students suffer from PTSD, how PTSD interferes on students’ psychological, sociological and overall functioning and the effect of PTSD based on gender. For the purpose of data collection, PTSD screening scale was used to collect data that was used before and after treatment with Cognitive Restructuring Therapy and its effects on PTSD was assessed. The research design employed in this study was a quasiexperimental design with pre-test post-test method in both the experimental and control groups. A pre-test was administered to both experimental and control groups before the commencement of the treatment. The experimental group received the treatment on Cognitive Restructuring Therapy while the control group was not exposed to treatment. Sixty male and female students of ATBU Bauchi made up the sample for the study that lasted for eight weeks. There were thirty one students in the experimental group and twenty-nine students for the control group. The pretest was administered to both groups and results proved that the participants were similar with high effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. After treatment, however, post-test was conducted and the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of the experimental group showed a drastic reduce than the control group who were not exposed to treatment. Four research questions were raised to guide the study and four hypotheses formulated and tested at p<0.05 level of significance. The data was collected with the PTSD Screening Scale (PTSDSS) and anslysed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups, with experimental group showing noticeable reduce of the effects of PTSD than the control group. Based on the findings, it was concluded that Cognitive Restructuring Therapy can reduce effect of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and improve students’ psychological, sociological and overall functioning among University undergraduate students. And therefore, call on all counsellors, teachers, parents, social workers and general public to utilize the therapy