Improving work-life balance among administrative officers in Catholic primary schools: Assessing the effect of a Christian religious rational emotive behavior therapy.

OBJECTIVE: Work-life balance (WLB) is an essential precursor of workers' mental health. The theory of rational emotive behaviour therapy proposes that an imbalance in work and family life may result from people's dysfunctional perceptions of their work and other aspects of their personal life. Also, the constructive philosophies of rational emotive behavior therapy are said to be congruent with most religious belief systems of Christian clients. Therefore, our research examined the efficacy of Christian religious rational emotive behaviour therapy (CRREBT) on WLB among administrative officers in Catholic primary schools. METHODS: This is a group randomized trial involving 162 administrative officers from Catholic primary schools in Southeast Nigeria. The treatment process involved an 8-session CRREBT programme. RESULTS: The scores for WLB of the administrative officers enrolled in the CRREBT programme were significantly improved compared to those in the control group at the end of the study. At the follow-up phase, the CRREBT programme proved to be effective over a 3-month period. CONCLUSION: CRREBT is an effective therapeutic strategy for managing WLB among Catholic school administrative officers.

Rational emotive education for reducing stress of undergraduate students of religious education program: An experimental study.

BACKGROUND: Rational emotive education (REE) program aims to improve the behavioral and mental health of students. This study objective was to evaluate the effect of an REE program on stress among undergraduate students of religious education program in Nigerian Universities. METHOD: One hundred and fifty (150) religious education undergraduates who had high level of stress participated in the study. Participants were assigned to 2 different groups. The treatment group had 75 participants and while control group also had 75 participants. Data collection was done using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) while data analysis was done using independent sample t test and paired t test statistics at .05 probability level. RESULTS: The REE program resulted in a significant decrease in level of stress among undergraduate students of religious education program in the treatment group compared with those students in the control group. Also, the effect of the REE program was maintained during the follow-up among undergraduate students of religious education program exposed to it. CONCLUSION: The REE program can be used to assist undergraduate students of religious education program to manage their stress.