Effect of client‐centred therapy on the coping strategies of sexually harassed students in tertiary institutions in Taraba State, Nigeria.

Absract: This study examined the effects of client‐centred therapy (CCT) on the coping strategies of sexually harassed students in tertiary institutions in Taraba State, Nigeria. It also looked for any gender differences in the effect of CCT on the coping strategies of sexually harassed students. We employed a quasi‐experimental and pretest–post‐test design with control group. The statistical population comprised 250 students who had experienced sexual harassment in tertiary institutions, of which 20 students were selected using convenience sampling. The students who had been sexually harassed were then randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group subsequently underwent six 60‐min sessions of CCT, while the control group received placebo treatment on drug abuse. The research tools included a sexual harassment battery (SHB). Inferential statistics of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyse the data. Cronbach's alpha produced a reliability coefficient of 0.79 for the SHB. The following findings were recorded: (i) client‐centred therapy effectively increased the coping strategies of students and (ii) there was no significant mean difference between male and female students in the effectiveness of CCT on coping strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]