The Benefits of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy When Used with Children and AdolescentsEssay title: The Benefits of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy When Used with Children and AdolescentsThe benefits of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy when used with children and adolescents“People don’t just get upset. They contribute to their upsetness. They always have the power to think, and to think about their thinking, and to think about thinking about their thinking, which the goddamn dolphin, as far as we know, can’t do. Therefore they have much greater ability to change themselves than any other animal has, and I hope that REBT teaches them how to do it.” -Albert Ellis
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a recently new, now highly popular counseling approach (Weinrach et. al, 1995). It was first coined REBT by Albert Ellis in 1993. The purpose of REBT is, as stated in the Dictionary of Rational-Emotive Feelings and Behaviors,
“to help clients and others to clearly see the differences between their rational beliefs and their irrational beliefs, to understand the disordered feelings and behaviors to which the latter lead, and to help them become more rational, less disturbed, and less dysfunctional in their activities…(p. 3)”
This approach focuses on the idea that emotional disturbances emerge from faulty thinking about events rather than from the events themselves (Gonzalez et. al, 2004).
The ABCDE acronym is a treatment that REBT counselors frequently use. It begins with building a relationship with the client and having the client relate the Activating event to the counselor. “B” stands for the client’s belief system or cognitive reaction to the activating event. “C” is the emotional consequence that the client is experiencing, such as feeling angry or intimidated. “D” suggests that the client learn to dispute self-defeating thought processes, and “E” is the effect of the disputing process (Nystul, 2006).
Although one may assume that REBT counseling for adults is the same as it is for children, it is not. Unlike with adults, children and adolescents rarely perceive themselves as someone who would need therapeutic treatment. Another difference between REBT for children and adults is that children seldom refer themselves for treatment; rather they are referred by their parents, teacher, or other caretakers. REBT has been applied to children and adolescents exhibiting conduct disorders, aggression, test anxiety, disruptive classroom behaviors, attention deficit/hyperactive disorder, low self esteem, low self concept, irrationality, general anxiety, and low academic achievement (Gonzalez et. al, 2004).
The Psychological State
In a 2011 US National Center for Comorbidity Studies report about the Psychological State of Students, one of the more recent studies used children’s self-reported self-esteem ratings to help evaluate the validity of a study design on their personal self-evaluations about how they perceived their community (Larvin et. al, 2010). While there are certain studies that indicate positive effects of REBT, other studies say that those studies did not test whether children felt a degree of self-acceptance (Meyers, 1998). It is thus not surprising to find that kids who are not in the study did well with their self-esteem assessment after six months. There has been little data supporting this notion, and it is the impression of those results that is being felt at a young age among the kids who are being treated for a mental health condition called REBT. Despite that, while it is a well-established fact that REBT and depression are highly influenced by the psychological state, there is one study which only tested whether it was a true predictor of self-esteem (e.g., Leiserowitz, 1987). One of the more recently published research was from a study of 17–21 year olds. The researchers hypothesized that children who experienced REBT during the summer of 2004 might be slightly more positive about their community (e.g., by feeling good about their school), as opposed to being more negative about their school (see Leiserowitz 1987). While the group in question did not show a correlation between these scores and the level of self-deception, the researchers did find that children with a low self-esteem had significantly less negative attitudes toward their school, and there was no evidence that kids who did not feel bad about their school viewed their school negatively (a finding that was not supported by other research). It is reasonable to assume that these children did not believe that their schools had a good way to educate them.
To find these results, Leiserowitz, et al. surveyed 908 students, aged 15–28 years, between the ages of 6–13 years who had experienced PTSD in the past year. They included all 18 or 19 year olds who were in the sample. The data revealed that, although the study found a positive correlation between the level of self-esteem in these groups and the level of REBT, in general they did not report this correlation and it was not statistically significant. What Leiserowitz, et al. discovered was that children who reported feeling the full “feel good” effect of negative thoughts and emotions on their school were significantly more likely than those who had feelings of “feel good” or “disgraceful emotions” to report feeling like they were experiencing a negative emotion. And thus, in the absence of prior experience developing
One meta-analysis was done in January 2002 by Jorge E. Gonzalez, J. Ron Nelson, Terry B. Gutkin, Anita Saunders, Ann Galloway, and Craig S. Shwery. The major purpose of this meta-analysis was to “evaluate the impact of REBT on treatment outcomes for children and adolescents” (Gonzalez et. al, 2004). A computer search was done looking for studies involving REBT and children/adolescents dating from 1972 to January 2002. Each study was then coded according to its outcome and/or client characteristics.
There were seven important findings. Most importantly, it was proven that the effects of psychotherapy with children and adolescents were beneficial and of a respectable magnitude. Second, REBT had its most pronounced impact on disruptive behaviors. This finding was not surprising being that disruptive behaviors are among the most frequently reported problems with children and adolescents (Gonzalez et. al, 2004).
Third, “studies high in internal validity were statistically equivalent to studies low in internal validity, suggesting no relative difference in variation in effect sizes as a function of this important dimension (Gonzalez et. al, 2004). Fourth, REBT was found to be equally effective for children with identified problems and children without identified problems. This shows that REBT may be useful for both intervention and prevention purposes with a wide range of students.
Fifth, the weighted effect sizes showed that non-mental health professionals had more of an effect on the children. Sixth, the greatest impact of REBT among children and adolescents occurred in the “medium to high” treatment duration. This is basically saying that the longer the session, the greater the impact of the sessions on the children/adolescents. Finally, the REBT treatment effects were greater for elementary school-age children than they were for both middle and high school students (Gonzalez et. al, 2004).
In another study, done by Ann Vernon, an educative approach was used to help clients “overcome self defeating emotions and behaviors that prevent them from achieving their goals and achieving happiness” (Vernon, 1996). This study involves an 8-year old girl by the name of Jessica.
When the counselor first met the