INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF RESILIENCE-FOCUSED COUNSELLING ON ADOLESCENTS' ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND EMOTIONALWELLNESS

Abstract

Adolescence is a very important phase in individual life, characterized by tremendous challenges in some academic, emotional, and social contexts. Challenges faced by adolescents in Nigeria, among others, are academic performance, socioeconomic limitations, and less availability of mental health resources. This study assessed the effects of resilience-based counselling on the academic performance and emotional well-being of adolescents, providing a prospective intervention approach. Adopting a quasi-experimental approach, 200 Nigerian secondary school students were involved, further categorized into an experimental group that received resilience-based counselling for eight weeks and a control group that did not. The intervention incorporated skills like cognitive behavioural therapy, stress management, and mindfulness training to enhance resilience. Resilience-focused counselling produced a statistically significant influence, improving emotional well-being across ARES-i25, better stress management, enhanced self-confidence, and growing problem-solving skills, as shown by the baseline evaluations. ANCOVA results further confirmed that experimental children fared statistically better with their performance than the control groups (F = 151.504, p < .05), thereby validating resilience-based interventions in promoting academic success. The research concludes with the recommendation that resilience-based counselling offers a much-needed scope in improving academic achievement and emotional stability in Nigerian adolescents, and so structured resilience-training programmes should form the basis of school curricula to promote better coping and general well-being in students.