Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Academic Burnout, Procrastination, Self-Handicapping Behavior, and Test Anxiety among Adolescents: A Randomized Control Trial

Abstract

Abstract Objective Emotional instability during adolescence could make them susceptible to developing mental problems, and these problems could enhance in severity when left unresolved. Other life stressors like job competition, peer pressure, and parental unrealistic expectations could further deteriorate their mental health. Therefore, the present study is designed to investigate the impact of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on adolescents to manage procrastination, burnout, self-handicapping behavior, and test anxiety to enhance academic motivation and achievement.Materials and Methods A total of 200 students were enrolled for eligibility assessment, and 129 participants met the eligibility criteria. Participants were divided into two groups, the experimental group, and the waitlist control group. All the students completed their demographics form and screening tool, the eligible participants were given assessment measures at pre-post-assessment stages (8 weeks intervals). We used different assessment measures to assess the outcome i.e. General Procrastination Scale (GPS), Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS), Self-handicapping Scale (SHS), Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI), and Living up to Parental Expectation Scale (LPES). Repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyze the results.Results The current RCT findings suggest that CBT substantially reduced emotional and behavioral problems and helped the students manage parental unrealistic expectations in the experimental group compared to the waitlist control condition. Further, CBT significantly reduced the degree of procrastination {F (1, 63) = 25.01, p < .000, η2 = .29} academic burnout {F (1, 63) = 11.08, p < .000, η2 = .16}, test anxiety {F(1, 63) = 88.17, p < .000, η2 = .59}, and self-handicapping {F (3, 56) = 10.17, p < .000, η2 = .16} among adolescents. Overall, CBT significantly helped the students to manage parental unrealistic expectations through providing relationship skills and training {F (3,56) = 546.46, p < .001, η2 = .89)}.Condition: It is concluded that CBT is an effective and evidence-based treatment intervention to address emotional disturbance caused by procrastination, burnout, test anxiety, and self-handicapping behavior among adolescents. Furthermore, it is concluded that CBT is also an effective intervention that helped students to manage peer pressure and parental unrealistic expectations.