Effectiveness of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy on the Level of Depression among Female Adolescents

Introduction & Objectives: Clinical depression is a serious illness that can affect any individuals including the adolescent. Depression influences on the individual’s thought, feeling, behavior, and health. The present study aimed at examining the effectiveness of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy on the adolescent girls’ depression. Method: The research has been experimental in nature and has been done with a pre-test/post-test design taking into account a control group. After screening the candidates, a sample of 30 female school students who scored 20 or above in the Child Depression Inventory (CDI) Questionnaire (Kovacs, 1992) were randomly selected through a simple sampling procedure and were placed randomly at two groups of 15 subjects, the Experimental and control groups. The experimental group members participated, on a weekly basis, in 10 sessions of 50 minutes receiving Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy trainings. Upon the completion of training sessions, once again, the subjects of the two groups replied to the questionnaire. The data gathered was analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) test by using the SPSS software. Results: The findings obtained show the effectiveness of the REBT on the decrease of depression inventory scores where the scores of the experimental group as opposed to those of the control group indicate an improvement in the construct under measurement in the post-test stage. Conclusion: The results indicate that Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy is affective on the reduction of depression in female adolescents more specifically with an emphasis on such principles and techniques as the identification of cognitive errors, the musts and the rules, the identification of core beliefs, challenging the irrational beliefs, the musts and the core beliefs, as well as distinguishing individuals from behaviors and from acceptance.