Comparison of the efficacy of education based on reality therapy and rational emotional behavioral therapy on the social competence of adolescent girls

Social competence is one of the predictors of academic, psychological and social success in adolescents. Previous studies have shown that reality therapy and rational emotional behavioral therapy are suitable methods for improving social adjustment, but so far the efficacy of these two therapeutic approaches on the social competence of adolescent girls has not been studied and compared.

The present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the efficacy of education based on reality therapy and rational emotional behavioral therapy on the social competence of adolescent girls.

The current research design was a pre-test, post-test semi-experimental with a control group and a 2-month follow-up. The statistical population of the research included all female students of the first year of high school in Bushehr schools in the academic year of 2016-2017. The statistical sample consisted of 60 teenage girls who were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method and randomly were replaced in three groups of 20 people (two experimental groups and one control group). In reality therapy from a combined protocol (Glasser,2010; Wubbolding,2011) and rational emotional behavioral therapy sessions from a combined training package (Ellis,2004; Dryden & Neenan, 2010; Neenan & Dryden, 2009) and to collect Information was also used from the social competence questionnaire (Smart & Sanson, 2003). Repeated measurement analysis of variance, Benferroni post hoc test and SPSS23 software were used for data analysis.

The results showed that reality therapy training and REBT significantly increased social competence compared to the control group. Also, reality therapy training increased social competence more compared to rational-emotional-behavioral therapy (P<0.05).

According to the obtained findings, it seems that reality therapy and REBT increase social competence in adolescent girls. Therefore, school counselors can use these therapeutic methods to improve the five components of social competence (courage, cooperation, empathy, responsibility and self-control).