The Influence of Counseling on Adolescents: a study of adolescents in Ngong Ward Schools of Kajiado North Sub-county

Abstract

Counseling is an essential tool to help adolescents overcome the challenges they face in this significant stage of human growth and development. Young people need to acquire the right knowledge and skills to become productive workers and responsible adults. One way of helping adolescents cope with the various social and developmental challenges is through school counseling programmes which significantly lead to more positive attitudes towards school. School counseling decreases adolescents aggressive and hostile behaviors. The broad objective of this study was to investigate the influence of counseling integration in schools on adolescents. Specific objectives were to: identify the factors affecting provision of adolescence counseling and examine perceptions and attitudes of adolescents on role of counseling; analyze the challenges of adolescence counseling in schools. The study was carried out in three secondary schools in Ngong ward in Kajiado County. The study adopted a descriptive research design. A sample of 36 adolescents aged 13- 18 years were interviewed using a questionnaire. In addition the researcher interviewed 6 key informants using a key informant guide. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and it was presented in form of frequencies and percentages, charts and tables. The study found that the provision of counseling to adolescents was affected by level of education of counselors and their experience. It established that students had a more positive attitude towards individual counselling programmes compared to group and peer counselling. Overall the study found out that counseling helped adolescents solve their personal problems, improve their well-being, their academic performance and it increased their self-esteem. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made: that the Ministry of Education in collaboration with Teachers Service Commission should employ counselors in each school for effective counselling to adolescents in secondary schools; that there should be continuous training of teachers-counselors in schools; and that school administrators should carry out monitoring and evaluation of counselling programmes to identify effective measures to help achieve effective counselling services in secondary schools.