Enhancing Social and Emotional Competence of Adolescents using Mindfulness-Based Rational Emotive Behavioural Counselling: A Pilot Study

Social and emotional competencies have been related to positive adaptive outcomes, psychological well-being, and school, home and peer adjustment among the adolescents. This paper presents the outcome of a quasi-experimental research on the impact of Mindfulness-Based Rational Emotive Behavioural Counselling (MBREBC) on the social and emotional competence of adolescents. MBREBC intervention integrates the techniques of mindfulness and REBT to achieve emotional rational insight. The experimental design was one group pre-test, post-test design and the sample was a group of adolescents drawn from a Pre-University College in Bangalore. They were matched on two criteria: their socio-economic status and academic performance. The measures used in the study were Adolescent Social Competence Scale (ASCS) and Emotional Competence Scale (ECS). The paired t-test for dependent sample and Willcoxon signed rank test were used to analyse the data using SPSS. Statistically significant gain was observed on many of the dimensions of adolescent social and emotional competence after the MBREBC intervention.