Effect of cognitive restructuring counselling technique on reduction of bullying behaviour among secondary school students in Sokoto metropolis, Nigeria

Introduction: Bullying as a relational behavior where younger and less stronger ones experience malicious intention from some bigger or stronger ones has been noticed among students. The latter were found to show the intent to harm others because of some reasons among which are life experiences that shapes their behavior. Purpose: Examined the effect of cognitive restructuring counselling technique in reducing bullying behavior among secondary school students in Sokoto metropolis, Nigeria. Methodology: The study used a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test experimental and control group design. The study population comprises of 71 bully students and a sample of 40 students, assigned to the experimental and control groups, respectively. Bullying Behavior Questionnaire (BBQ) was the instrument used for data collection. Validities of face and content for the instrument were established and also a reliability index of 0.88 was achieved through the test-retest technique. Data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics frequency and simple percentage in answering the research question while t-test for independent sample was used in testing the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Results: It was revealed that there is a significant difference in the effect of the cognitive restructuring Counselling technique on reduction of bullying behavior between the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group (t = -10.544, p = .000). However, there was no significant gender difference in the effect of the cognitive restructuring counselling technique on bullying behavior (t = .095, p = .926).  Recommendations: Teachers, counsellors, and all stakeholders in education should use the cognitive restructuring Counselling technique to treat bullying behavior of students