Rational emotive education : its effects on the locus of control and school behavior of hidden children of alcoholics

Graduation date: 1988This study examined the effects of an eight week Rational Emotive Education Program (REE) on the perception of locus of control and the reduction of the number of disciplinary referrals of self-revealing children of alcoholics (COA's) in a school setting. The sample included 74 randomly selected middle school students. The children of alcoholics population was unknown at the offset of the study. A review of the literature supported the possibility of a COA's perception of locus of control being a contributing factor to possible problems in school. The Nowicki- Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children and a count of disciplinary referrals were pre-post measures of the effectiveness of the REE program. Seventy five percent of the experimental group receiving disciplinary referrals were self-revealing COA's. One hundred percent of the five students expelled from school during the study were COA's. The REE intervention had no significant effect on the experimental population as a whole. HOWEVER, REE had a significant effect on the reduction of the COA's number of disciplinary referrals at a .001 level, a significant change effect on the locus of control of COA's at a .044 level, and showed a significant effect on the correlation between the reduction of referrals and the locus of control change toward the mean. Fifty two percent of the COA's having a history of disciplinary referrals had a pre-locus of control that was at least two standard deviations from the mean; one hundred percent of the COA's without a referral history had locus of control scores within one standard deviation of the mean. A COA relationship was found with the independent variable of absenteeism at a .002 level of significance. This data suggests that children of alcoholics responded significantly to a Rational Emotive Educational intervention within a school setting. Both the COA locus of control scores and the number of disciplinary referrals changed more significantly than at the .05 level. Further study of the effects of REE on the behavior of COA school disrupters, hidden and at risk within the schools, is recommended