Inclusive and Supportive Education Congress International Special Education Conference Inclusion: Celebrating Diversity? 1st - 4th August 2005. Glasgow, Scotland

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BRIEF GROUP INTERVENTIONS:
AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO HELP MALADJUSTED STUDENTS IN CAMPUS

NOOR AZNIZA ISHAK
FACULTY OF HUMAN AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
NORTHERN UNIVERSITY OF MALAYSIA
SINTOK, 06010, KEDAH
MALAYSIA

DR. HAIRUL NIZAM ISMAIL
DR. MOHAMAD HASHIM OTHMAN
SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES
SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF MALAYSIA
PENANG
MALAYSIA

Email: noorazniza@uum.edu.my

ABSTRACT

Psychological maladjustment among new students needs to be considered as a serious problem nowadays. The elements of the psychological maladjustment that always become a problem to the new students are anxiety- tension-stress, Compulsive-Obsessive-Rigid Behavior, Depressive-Defeatist Thoughts and Feelings, Friendship- Socialization, Goals: Religious- Philosophical, Inadequacy: Feeling and Behavior. These elements must be handled properly to avoid the negative effects to the students. Sometimes the maladjusted cases have to be referred to the counselor or psychiatrist.   The survey of the identification of maladjustment problems among new students was conducted to the 400 respondents using 48 ICET questionnaires (McMahon, 1971). The result shows that 192students need counseling services because of the maladjusted problems, 114 students are under control, 49 students are normal and 45 students need to be referred to the psychiatrist. Distribution of the elements stated that anxiety- tension-stress 25.45%, Compulsive-Obsessive-Rigid Behavior 29.86%, Depressive-Defeatist Thoughts and Feelings 22.75%, Friendship- Socialization 13.38%, Goals: Religious- Philosophical 45.67% and Inadequacy: Feeling and Behavior 26.91%. Generally this survey manages to identify the maladjustment problems among the new students in one of the local University in Malaysia. These results lead the researcher to perform a treatment to overcome the problems. This paper will discuss about the comparison between two brief group work interventions that focused on REBT and behavior approaches to help the maladjusted students to develop their life in campus. A sample of 288 male and female maladjusted university students was assigned to one of three groups: REBT brief group work intervention, behavioral brief group work intervention and control group. According to the findings, both of the treatment, reduced maladjustment compared to control group. There are no significant different between REBT focused brief group intervention and behavioral focused brief group intervention but there are significant different between the two interventions and the control group. This paper will also discuss about the gender effect and the interaction of the independent variables. Lastly this paper will discuss how we can help the students to develop themselves using this intervention as an alternative way to reduce maladjustment.

Keywords:

Brief group intervention, REBT approach, behavior approach, maladjustment and student development

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Each year, Malaysian universities have taken necessary steps to help their first year students adjusting to the universities’ environment. The orientation, peer groups, mentoring and campus tours programs are some of the examples of the initiatives taken by the respective institutions in assisting these new students to adjust themselves to the new campus environment.

During the transition period, the students commonly are facing with all kinds of adjustment including physical, social, academic and emotional adjustments. These first year students normally ponder and query themselves with many questions concerning relationships, direction of life and self worth (Chickering, 1969) which consequently may lead to personal crisis or emotional problems. The personal or emotional problems are the areas of adjustment that can be manifested as global psychological distress, somatic distress, anxiety, low self-esteem or depression.  

The adjustment problems among students in higher education institutions were mainly related to anxiety, phobia, difficulties or frustration (Suradi, 1984). These difficulties include the physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual problems of the students. Specifically, the “maladjustment” was defined as inability of an individual to choose suitable situation and failed to understand the environment needs (Poduska, 1980). Haber & Runyon (1984) then classified maladjustment as the misperception of reality, failure to control stress and anxiety, negative self-image, depression, low interpersonal relationship and frustration. Acceptance, on the other hand, is a psychological function, an intuitive perception, and intellectual acknowledgement of reality.   When we accept a facet of our life, it is available for our use and enjoyment. Self-acceptance has no standard of values and it needs no justification. Thus, we can have self-acceptance regardless of what we do (Stout, 2003).

Literature reviews show that studies on adjustment problems among Malaysian students has been done in some foreign countries. For example, the research by Abdul Halim (1979) and Suradi (1984) showed that there were some adjustment problems among many Malaysian students abroad, especially the physical adjustment. Siti (2003) and Norhazita (2003) found similar maladjustment problems among first year students in a number of local universities although the level of maladjustment was average and was focused on the academic, personal and social aspects.

The new era of globalization leads the counseling approach to develop according to the problems and situation created by peoples. Stone & Rutan (1983) found that only 8 % of the client in the group counseling session finish up their session in a year time. The result shows that the traditional approach can only help a very minimum people with a long period of time.  Garfield & Bergin (1994) suggested that brief group interventions was as effective as traditional approach so this intervention will be an alternative way to help client in short period of time.There were several ways to help maladjusted students in campus. Brief counseling approach was one of  an alternative way to help them. According to Steenbarger (1992) brief counseling with several approaches (e.g.: Psychodynamic, behavioral and cognitive behavioral) can be used in groups or individual counseling. Littrell (1998) found that Solution Focused Brief Therapy were focused to the problems and limitation of the client. This approach will give an optimistic and challenging counseling process to the client.

This particular study, on the other hand, wants to identify the different effects of two brief groups’ interventions using REBT approach and behavioral approach towards maladjustment. This study also wants to identify the gender effects and self acceptance effects towards maladjustment.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

This study was aimed at addressing the following objectives:

1. To identify the different effects of brief group interventions: REBT focused, behavioral focused and control group towards maladjustment.

2. To identify the different effects of gender towards maladjustment.

3. To identify the different effects of self acceptance levels towards maladjustment.

4. To identify the interaction effects between experimental groups and gender  towards maladjustment.

5. To identify the interaction effects between experimental groups and self acceptance towards maladjustment.

SAMPLE AND PROCEDURE

The purpose of this study is to identify the different effects of REBT Brief Group intervention and Behavior Brief Group Intervention towards maladjustment among first year students in one of the local university in Malaysia. This quasi experimental study is using 3 x 2 x 2 factorial design. The sample consists of 288 first year students (144 male and 144 female) who are having maladjustment problem with low and high level of self- acceptance. There were three factors involved; interventions factor (three groups), gender factor (male and female) and self acceptance factor (low and high). Intervention factor are focused to three intervention approaches, REBT Brief Group Intervention, Behavior Brief Group Intervention and control group. The three experimental groups are formed with 96 subjects in each intervention group. They were randomly assigned to three groups as described above.   The researcher has prepared two different modules on REBT Brief Group Intervention and Behavior Brief Group Intervention. The involved subjects in the treatment group were given for five sessions (90 minutes per session) within the duration of five weeks. Meanwhile the control group was not given any treatment. Eight counselors were involved in administrating the counseling treatment groups. Two types of instrument were being used in this study. The first instrument is 48 Item Counseling Evaluation Test (48 ICET) and the second instrument is Self Acceptance Scale.

Two groups were given the treatment procedures, namely REBT Brief Group Intervention and the Behavioral Brief Group Intervention, while the third group was not given any treatment at all. The first group (REBT Brief Group Intervention) went through brief group counseling using REBT approached. In the first session, the counselor gave information about REBT to the subjects and encouraged the subjects to bring forward their adjustment problems. Second session, the counselor encouraged the subjects to build up their own mission to change. Third and fourth sessions, counselor help the subjects to use the ABCDE concept in REBT approach. Fifth session and finally, the counselor help the subjects to accept the reality of themself and make use of the approach to help them to reduce the maladjustment.

The second group (Behavioral Brief Group Intervention) went through brief group counseling using behavioral approached.    In the first session, the counselor helped the subjects to stated the problems statement, clear and concrete. Second and third session, the counselor guided the subjects to identified the strategies and build up the mission to overcome the adjustment problems. Fourth and fifth session, the counselor helped the subjects to apply the strategies and to accept themself.

INSTRUMENTS

A 48-item Counseling Evaluation Test (48 ICET) (McMahon, 1971) was used to measure maladjustment among the participating first year students. The 48 ICET was developed as an aid to increase the accuracy in the identification of personal and emotional problems of adolescents and adults (McMahon, 1971). It can be administered to either individuals or groups. It covers a broad range of areas with items classified into six problems areas:   Anxiety-Tension- Stress, Compulsive-Obsessive-Rigid Behavior, Depressive-Defeatist Thoughts and Feelings, Friendship-Socialization, Goals: Religious-Philosophical, Inadequacy: Feeling and Behavior. Each item consists of a set of “double questions” which may increase the validity of respondents’ responses. The item can be answered as “yes” or “no” or “true” or “false”. In the double question approach, once the first question of a particular item is answered, the respondent follows up his or her response by answering the second question, or skipping it by going on to the next item. The total score is 47 and it was divided into six categories with the score range as A- Anxiety-Tension- Stress (0 - 11), C- Compulsive-Obsessive-Rigid Behavior (0 – 8), D- Depressive-Defeatist Thoughts and Feelings (0 – 5), F- Friendship-Socialization (0 – 7), G- Goals: Religious-Philosophical (0 – 7), I- Inadequacy: Feeling and Behavior (0 – 9). The total score can be interpreted by “normal response” for scores between (0 – 4), “some maladjustment” for scores between (5 – 8), “severe maladjustment” for scores between (9 – 19) and   “immediate clinical attention is needed” for scores above 19.

The second instrument is the Self- Acceptance Scale (SAS) (Phillips, 1951). This instrument contains 25 items, for each of which a negative answer indicates high self-acceptance.   Each item is answered on a five-point scale, running from “not at all true” to “true”. The response options for these items were 5 point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly not true) to 5 (strongly true). This scale has been administered to high school and college students as well as normal adults.   The reliability coefficient (alpha) for the 48 ICET is 0.85 while for the SAS, it is 0.81, respectively.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows version 11.5. Univariate analyses (ANOVA, T-Test) were run to test the research hypotheses at the significant level p<0.05. The results of the study showed that there are significant different effects for the independent variables of maladjustment. The results also showed that there were significant effects for the gender effect of maladjustment. There was no significant effect for self acceptance and no interaction between group’s intervention, gender and self acceptance. Post Hoc Turkey’s HSD test showed that the two interventions (REBT Brief Group intervention and Behavior Brief Group Intervention) were equally effective to reduce the maladjustment. The test also showed that the intervention groups were more effective than the control groups to reduce the maladjustment among the students. Therefore, the researcher made the conclusion that the results of this study showed that the maladjustment subjects need to be treated in order to reduce the maladjustment problems promptly. The results of the study showed that REBT Brief Group intervention and Behavior Brief Group Intervention are the alternative approaches to help maladjustment students in campus.

            The details of the findings were described according to the research questions as below:

First, are there any significant differences in the level of maladjustment between subjects who follow the treatment of   REBT Brief Group Intervention as compared to those who follow the treatment of Behavior Brief Group Intervention and those with no treatment at all. The results of the ANOVA (Table 1) shows that there was a significant difference between subjects in the treatment groups, F(2, 280)=31.514; P<0.05, regarding their level of maladjustment. The result of the Post Hoc Turkey’s HSD Multiple Comparison (Table 2) also shows that there was a significant difference between  control group and treatment groups but there was no significant difference between treatment groups (REBT Brief Group Intervention and Behavior Brief Group Intervention). It shows that both interventions groups are effective to reduce maladjustment among the subjects compared to control group.

Second, are there any significant difference in the levels of maladjustment between male and female subjects in the experiment. The results of the ANOVA (Table 13) shows that there was a significant difference between subjects in the treatment groups F(1, 280)= 23.564; p< 0.05 and control group, regarding their level of maladjustment. It shows that male subjects in the REBT Brief Group Intervention (m=-7.583) and Behavioral Brief Group Intervention (m=-7.042) manage to reduce maladjustment more then female subjects (m= -6.167) in the REBT Brief Group Intervention and Behavioral Brief Group Intervention (m=-4.021)  after the treatment.

Third, are there any significant difference in the levels of maladjustment between subjects who have low self acceptance and high self acceptance in the experiment. The results of ANOVA (Table 1) shows that there was no significant difference F(1,280)=0.572 ; p>0.05 between subjects who have low self acceptance and high self acceptance regarding their level of maladjustment after the treatment.

Fourth, are there any significant interactions between treatments and gender on the level of maladjustment. The results of ANOVA (Table 1) shows that there was no significant interactions between treatments groups and gender F(2,280)=1.578; p>0.05, regarding their level of maladjustment.

Fifth, and finally, are there any significant interactions between treatments and self acceptance on the level of maladjustment. The results of ANOVA (Table 1) shows that there was no significant interactions between treatments groups and self acceptance F(2,280)=0.049; p>0.05, regarding their level of maladjustment.

In conclusion, the results of treatment groups and control group showed that the control group that did not receive any treatment had a significantly higher scores of maladjustment compared to the groups that receive REBT Brief Group Intervention and the Behavioral Brief Group Intervention. It was also shown that there was a significant difference between male and female subjects regarding the level of maladjustment. Finally there was no significant interaction found between either approaches and gender or approaches and self acceptance on the maladjustment measurement.

Table 1: Summary Table of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for Maladjustment

*p<.05, **p<.01

Table 2: Post Hoc Turkey’s HSD Multiple Comparison Test Between Groups

*p<.05, **p<0.01

DISCUSSIONS

            In this study two treatment approaches (i.e., REBT Brief Group Intervention and Behavioral Brief Group Intervention) were compared with one another, as well as with no treatment control group, in order to determine new university students (i.e., male and female) psychological maladjustment scores. Notably, subjects who experienced either REBT Brief Group Intervention or Behavioral Brief Group Intervention were found to demonstrate lower maladjustment scores than their counterparts in the no treatment control group, though the two treatment groups were not found to significantly vary from one another.

This points to the facts that these treated subjects were able to use this skill to help themselves to manage the maladjustment  especially through out their first year in campus. Whereas, those who did not receive any training   at all probably maintained their original tension and maladjustment, thus demonstrating significantly higher scores. These findings seem to indicate that either the REBT Brief Group Intervention or the Behavioral Brief Group Intervention could be an alternative way to help the maladjusted students in campus.

            Interestingly,   study by Eisengart (1998) revealed that out of 15 research by experimental design using brief counseling that conducted by researcher until 1998, 13 was reported effectively reduced all kind of problems in the sessions. This study also supported Eisengart (1998) study,  it revealed that both REBT Brief Group Intervention and the Behavioral Brief Group Intervention apparently reduced maladjustment scores among the subjects.

The findings of the study also indicated the significant difference in gender. Male subjects reduced the level of maladjustment more than female subjects after the treatments. Study by O’Leary, Page & Kaczmarek (2000) shows that male subjects are more positive self perception compared to female subjects. In that case, male subjects manage to reduced maladjustment faster then female subjects. This findings however, failed to find any significant differences either on treatment and gender or treatment and self acceptance.

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION

One of the contributions of this study is its indication of the significant differences of the treatment groups ( REBT Brief Group Intervention and the Behavioral Brief Group Intervention) and control group among the participating first year students. It also identified the significant differences between the genders. The findings of this study would help the related parties to design strategies in helping the students to overcome the maladjustment. The following initiatives help to reduce students’ maladjustment and build up their self:

a) Providing counseling session for the students who need the service.

b) Encouraging good relationships among peers and staffs

c) Providing programs that can build up self adjustment

d) Identifying the severe cases and provide clinical attention

e) Providing programs to overcome any type of maladjustment

REFERENCES

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