EFFECTIVENESS OF EXPOSURE TO PSYCHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS AND AVAILABLE COUNSELLING SERVICES ON COUNSELLING-SEEKING BEHAVIOUR AMONG IN-SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS IN OWERRI MUNICIPAL, IMO STATE.

Abstract

This study explored the effectiveness of exposure to psychological conditions and available counselling services on low counselling-seeking behaviour of in-school adolescents in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design employing the pre-test-post-test, non-randomized control group design. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The sample of the study consisted of 40 in-school adolescents purposively sampled from a population 578 in-school adolescents identified as having low counselling-seeking behaviour. A 21-item questionnaire titled Intention to Seek Counselling Services Questionnaire (ISCSQ) was used to collect data. The instrument was validated by three experts in the field with stability index of 0.86 and internal consistency of 0.77. Psychological conditions and available counselling services were exposed to those in the treatment group for six sessions of 45 minutes each for a period of three weeks while the control group was a waitlist group. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that psychological conditions and available counselling services (PCCS) was effective in enhancing the level of counselling-seeking behaviour among in-school adolescents with low counselling-seeking behaviour at post-test. There were no gender differences in the level of counselling-seeking behaviour in the treatment groups and control at post-test period. It was thus recommended that school counsellors should expose psychological conditions and available counselling services (PCCS) to students with low counselling-seeking behaviour.