Abstract

Depression and suicide ideation appear to be concerning public health issues among secondaryschool adolescents, particularly in Anambra State, Nigeria. This study investigatedtheeffectiveness of cognitive restructuring and self-management therapies in the management ofdepression and suicide ideation among adolescents in Anambra State. A quasi-experimental pretest/post-test research design was employed. The study involved 101 adolescent students selectedthrough stratified and simple random sampling techniques in three educational zones. Theparticipants selected were grouped into three and randomly assigned to cognitive restructuringtherapy group, self-management therapy group, and a control group. This paper was anchoredonIntegrated Motivational-Volitional Model of Suicide Behaviour. Two research questions andtworesearch hypotheses guided the study. Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ), Suicide IdeationAttributes Scale (SIDAS), and Depression Inventory (DI) with reliability coefficients of 0.84, 0.75, and 0.88 respectively were used for collection of data in this study. The data collectedwereanalysed using standard deviation, mean and analysis of covariance at 0.05 level of significance. The results of the analysis revealed that cognitive restructuring and self-management therapiesreduce suicide ideation significantly among the adolescent students compared to the control group. Also, the two therapies brought about substantial reductions in depression, with cognitiverestructuring therapy showing a slightly higher effectiveness in mitigating this issue. Theseresults provide valuable insights for counsellors, educators, mental health practitioners, andpolicymakers on the provision of culturally and contextually tailored mental health interventionsin Anambra State.