Abstract

This study investigated the effect of solution-focused brief therapy on the psychological adjustment challenges of postgraduate student-mothers in universities in Lagos, Nigeria. The variables included social adjustment, mental health adjustment and cognitive adjustment. The study was hinged on two theories: Self theory by Karl Rogers and Personal construct theory by George Kelly. Quasi-experimental research design was used to carry out the study, with a total population of 120 respondents. Two universities were selected for the study. University of Lagos was the experimental group, while Lagos state university was the control group. Participants were selected using a multistage sampling technique. Data was collected using an adapted 72-item instrument titled Postgraduate mothers and psychological adjustment Questionnaire (PMPAQ). The pretest-intervention-posttest was carried out within six weeks, using the solution-focused brief therapy as a counselling intervention technique. Six research questions were answered and six research hypotheses were tested. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) while the hypotheses were tested using analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA). The study revealed that there is a significant effect of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) as a result of the intervention. The findings also revealed that student-mothers experienced positive mental health, social, cognitive adjustments after the therapy. The results from the hypotheses scores revealed that student-mothers who participated in therapy sessions improved significantly. Recommendations based on the findings of the study suggests that counselling intervention should be incorporated into the learning activities of student-mothers. It was also recommended that student-mothers should get a tailor-made timetable and examination schedules on request, in order to meet up and graduate within record time