Assessing the Efficacy of Rational Emotive Behavior Intervention for Visually Impaired Upper Basic School Children with Negative Self-belief/Personal Value System

School children living with blindness have been reported to struggle with value system and an unrealistic decision-making process. This study examined the efficacy of rational emotive behavior intervention (REBT) in reducing the negative self-belief/personal of upper basic school children living with blindness. A group-randomized trial design was adopted using 56 primary school children who are living with blindness. The participants received a value-based rational emotive behavior program and were assessed at three points using PVS and ABS-2-AV. Analysis utilizing ANCOVA showed that there was no significant difference between the treatment and control groups in initial negative self-belief/maladaptive value using ABS-2-AV and PVS. At post-treatment, the effect of V-REBP was significant in changing negative self-belief/maladaptive value and follow-up assessment respectively, in favor of the treatment group. The result of this study was further supported by previous studies (e.g. Ejekwu in J Emot Dev 1(1):23–35, 2017) which argue that REBT is significantly effective in reducing maladaptive personal value systems, erroneously conceived school goals among the visually impaired population. Given the significant impact of the rational emotive behavior intervention, rational-emotive experts practicing in special schools can use REBT techniques to alter the maladaptive value systems in individuals living with blindness.