Rational emotive intervention for work-family conflict and female primary school teachers’ well-being

Globally, work and family conflict has been investigated by many researchers. Yet there is an increased prevalence of work-family conflict and its influence on the well-being of the female teaching population, especially Nigerian primary school teachers. This incidence has kept a good proportion of schoolteachers vulnerable to health problems as well as affected their wellbeing. This study evaluates the effect of rational emotive behaviour therapy on improving the well-being of female teachers with irrational behaviours arising from the work-family conflict. This is a randomized study. A total of 69 female primary school teachers in Enugu state Nigeria who met the criteria for inclusion were used as the study participants. Three self-report measures (Work-Family Conflict questionnaire, Multidimensional Health States Scale-Short Form, and Teacher Irrational Belief Scale) were used to collect data. Repeated measures with analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to determine the effects of the intervention. The findings of the study revealed that REBT had a significant effect on the well-being scores of Nigerian female primary school teachers with work-family conflict when compared to their counterparts in the no-intervention group at Time 2. In addition, the effect of REBT on improving well-being in female teachers with work-family conflict was significantly maintained at the follow-up measurements (Time 3). In conclusion, it is suggested that REBT is an effective intervention for moderating the effect of work-family conflict on the well-being of career female teachers. As such, cognitive behavioural therapists can further examine the effectiveness of REBT using other constructs and cultures.