Vol.17 No.2 2014 AJPSSI AFRICAN JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY OF SOCIAL ISSUES pg. 67 EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING AND SOCIAL DECISION-MAKING TECHNIQUES ON TRUANCY BEHAVIOUR REDUCTION AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS IN IBADAN, NIGERIA ADEYEMI, A.O. and UWAKWE, C.B.U. Department of Guidance and Counselling University of lbadan, Ibadan, Nigeria ABSTRACT This study investigated effectiveness of cognitive restructuring and social decision-making techniques on truancy reduction among secondary school adolescents in Ibadan, Nigeria. Pre-test, post-test, control group quasi- experimental design with a 3x2x2 factorial matrix was adopted for the study. A total of 180 Senior Secondary School adolescents was randomly selected from three purposively selected secondary schools, from 11 local government areas in Ibadan, using the multistage sampling procedure. They were stratified proportionately into two experimental conditions - Cognitive Restructuring Technique (CRT) and Social Decision-Making Technique (SDMT) – and the control group. Two instruments, Truancy Behaviour Rating Scale (α = 0.78) and Student Motivation Scale (α = 0.77) were employed in the study. Three hypotheses were tested for significance at 0.05 alpha level. The data were subjected to Analysis of Covariance and Scheffe for post hoc analysis. There was a significant difference in the truancy reduction of the experimental participants and control group (F(2,174) = 51.40; P<0.05). The experimental participants (x=109.6, x = 103.5) performed better than the control (x = 126.134) on truancy behaviour reduction. Similarly, truancy declined among the participants treated with SDMT (x = 103.49) more than among those treated with CRT (x = 109.57). There was reduction in the truancy behaviour of high- and low- motivated participants (F(2,174) = 59.33; P< 20.05). Cognitive Restructuring and Social Decision-Making techniques were effective in the reduction of truancy among secondary school adolescents. Counselling and educational psychologists could make use of the two approaches to reduce the incidence of truancy in school. Keywords: Truancy, Adolescents, Cognitive Restructuring, Social Decision-Making INTRODUCTION Truancy is noted to be one of the early warning signs of delinquency, social isolation, school suspension and academic failure (Loeber & Farrington, 2001). Truancy may be a gateway to crime. The reason may be that high rates of truancy are linked to daytime burglary and high vandalism, which are ominous phenomena among adolescents (Loeber & Farrington, 2001). Truancy has been identified as the act of absenting oneself from school without a legitimate reason and without the permission of one’s parents or the school authorities (Herbert, 2005). Fogelman and Hibbet (1990) contend that any absence from school without an acceptable reason could be termed truancy, whether or not the students' parents know and approve of it. Hersov and Berg (1990) describe truancy as only one of the several kinds of anti- social behaviours, such as stealing, lying, destructiveness and excessive fighting. Some truant students may come to school but they avoid participating in school activities, such as lessons, assemblies and other co-curricular activities. At such times, they may be found hiding away in another part of the school, either idling or engaging in some illegitimate activities. Truancy may be defined as unwillingness of a student to attend school without either the permission of the parents or the school authority and he may be giving undue excuses to substantiate his absenteeism. Truancy is highly ranked deviant behaviours associated with adolescents in Nigerian schools. It depicts the situation in which school going adolescents have neither the permission of their parents nor the consent of the school authorities to keep away from school (Nwagwu, 1990). Al-Hassan (1990), Bolarin (1996) and Ugbede (1999) identify truancy among