The efficacy of rational-emotive education with school students

School counsellors are increasingly recognising the importance of preparing children and adolescents to deal more effectively with the typical problems and feelings they encounter during the course of growing up. This study describes the principles of rational -emotive education (REE), an emotional education programme based on Albert Ellis's rational -emotive therapy, and applies these principles to heterogeneous groups of Year 11/12 students (n=22), and Year 7 students (n=52), in regular classroom settings. Participants met for four to five hours per week for three weeks. Sessions were conducted in lieu of standard class lessons.

The REE intervention appears to be beneficial for both groups of students in enhancing certain aspects of personality and in reducing self -report measures of emotional distress. Students in the Year 7 group show greater acceptance of the programme, however, and show greater pre-treatment/post-treatment response changes than do the students in Year 11/12. Some suggestions for future research are offered in the light of these findings.