Adolescence is a stage of human development in which the father’s involvement is critical. Father-absence had been linked to several psychological and social adjustment challenges among the adolescent, and these might impact on their academic self-efficacy. Most studies focus on factors affecting academic self-efficacy of adolescents with little intervention strategies and less concentration on adolescents from father-absent families. This study, therefore, investigated the effects of cognitive restructuring and problem-solving therapies on the academic self-efficacy of in-school adolescents from father-absent families in Ekiti State, Nigeria. A pre-test, post-test, control group, experimental design with a 3x3x3 factorial matrix was adopted. Three secondary schools were selected randomly from the three senatorial districts, which constitute Ekiti State. A total of 166 participants were randomly distributed into two experimental groups and a control group using a simple random sampling technique. Participants in the experimental groups 2 and 3 were exposed to ten (10) weeks of training on Problem Solving Therapy (PST) and Cognitive Restructuring (CR), respectively. In contrast, the control group was exposed to talk on communication skills. Two instruments, Father-absent Involvement Scale and Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, were validated with the reliability of Cronbach alpha of 0.92 and 0.84 respectively, were used for the study. The data for the three groups, Cognitive Restructuring Therapy, Problem-Solving Therapy, and the Control group, were analyzed using the Scheffe Post-hoc analysis to determine the direction of differences for significant results. There was a significant main effect of treatment on academic self-efficacy (F_2,140=11.574, η²=.143) of in-school adolescents from father-absent families. CR ( =128.16) was more effective than PST ( =113.49) and the control group ( =91.82) in enhancing academic self-efficacy. In essence, the result showed that the two therapies were effective in improving academic self-efficacy of in-school adolescents from father-absent families. However, cognitive restructuring6 was more effective than problem-solving therapy in enhancing the academic self-efficacy of in-school adolescents. Based on the findings, it was recommended, that the tools of cognitive restructuring and problem-solving treatment could be utilized to enhance the academic self-efficacy of in-school adolescents.

Keywords: father-absent, self-efficacy, cognitive restructuring therapy, problem-solving therapy, in-school adolescent,

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