ABSTRACT

Late coming to school is an antisocial behaviour that has been widely reported as plaguing secondary schools in Nigeria. The concomitance is that it impedes learning, generally erodes class morale and retards the progress of students and adversely affects the achievement of educational objectives and academic performance of the students. Therefore, this study was designed to examine the effectiveness of self-control therapy and contingency management therapy and their combination in the reduction of Late coming behaviour among secondary school students in Abia State. Eight objectives and corresponding research questions and hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted the pretest- posttest and control group quasi experimental design. Three treatment groups and one control group formed the basic groups of the study. A sample of 48 subjects were drawn out of a population of 255 Senior Secondary two students in Abia State by simple random sampling. Instrument for data collection was the "Students Late coming Behaviour Identification Scale (SLCBIS). Validation of the instrument was done using experts' opinion while the Cronbach Alpha method was used in determining a reliability index of 0.83, which is good. Mean scores, standard deviation, t-test and ANOV A were used for data analyses and for testing hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings show that Self-control techniques was effective in the reduction of Late coming behaviour as compared with the control group at posttest (t =32.86). Contingency Management techniques was effective in the reduction of Late coming behaviour as compared with control group at posttest (t =29.12). The two single treatment techniques were effective but the contingency management group were more effective than the self-control group (t =3.23). The combined treatment group (SCT and CMT) were more effective than the SCT single treatment at posttest period (t =5.26). Combined treatment group (SCT and CMT) was equally effective as the CMT single treatment at posttest (t =0.00). There was maintenance effect of treatment at follow-up as those in self-control group were higher in the rate of reduction of Late coming behaviour as compared with the control group at follow-up (t =13.66). Findings also showed that even follow-up, contingency management group maintained the lead as compared with the control group in the rate of reduction of Late coming behaviour (t =15.58). There was gender difference in the rate of reduction of Late coming behaviour among experiemental groups at follow-up (F =8.9456). Therefore, the study recommends that teachers, therapists and parents should teach self-control techniques more so as to be able to overcome Late coming behaviours among secondary school students. Also for purposes of sustainability. teachers. counsellors and parents should adopt self-control therapy if they want students' adjusted behaviour to be permanent. Relapse prevention programmes should be strengthened when adopting self-control and contingency management therapies and the combination of selfcontrol therapy and contingency management therapy.