Effects of Two Modes of Counseling Approaches on HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing Among School-Going Adolescents

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of cognitive behavioral and reality group therapies in fostering human immunodeficiency virus/ voluntary counseling and testing among school-going adolescents in Benin Metropolis, Edo State, Nigeria. A pre- and post-test true experimental control group design was observed. While 120 school-going adolescents from three randomly selected schools were recruited and randomly assigned to two treatments (Cognitive Behavior [37] and Reality [34] Therapies) and control [38] groups, with 11 dropout accounting for 9% alteration rate. The treatment last six weeks. Two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The instruments used for data collection were self-administered scales with a test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.87 after an interval of three weeks. Data generated was analyzed using the inferential statistics of Analysis of Variance tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that cognitive behaviour and reality therapies were significantly effective in fostering HIV/voluntary counselling and testing among school-going adolescents. That is, the two modes of group interventions improve the willingness of adolescents of these schools towards receiving counselling and performing testing for HIV. It was concluded that cognitive behaviour and reality therapies were found to be potent on school-going adolescents’ willingness toward HIV voluntary counselling and testing for prevention and treatment.