Psychological Well-Being of School Counsellors Model

<p style="text-align: justify;">The school counselor’s role is increasingly challenging with various demands of students’ problems and the issue of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic also affect students’ psychosocial and mental well-being. Therefore, school counselors need to equip themselves with high psychological well-being as a self-care factor to deal with burnout, instability, and work stress. This study aims to develop Psychological Well-Being Model among school counsellors. A total of 330 secondary school counsellors from four districts in Selangor were selected as the respondents using the group random sampling method. Data were collected through translated questionnaire instruments, namely Self Compassion Scale, Counselling Self Estimate Inventory, The Assessing Emotions Scale, Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale Revised, and Psychological Well Being-Ryff. Confirmation Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) show that there is a significant positive relationship between self-compassion, counselling self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and the school counsellor’s psychological well-being. The findings also showed that self-compassion, counselling self-efficacy, emotional and spiritual intelligence affected 76.5% (R2 = 0.765) of variance in psychological well-being. This study is one of the earliest in presenting the school counsellor’s psychological well-being model who can contribute to Malaysian education. The implications of this study suggest that the elements of self-compassion, counselling self-efficacy, emotional and spiritual intelligence, and psychological well-being should be applied in the curriculum at the counsellor training level in university so that counsellors have adequate preparation in providing effective services in schools. The Ministry of Education Malaysia, on the other hand, needs to cultivate psychological well-being interventions regularly so that counsellors can always manage various students’ issues in schools as well as maintaining psychological well-being in terms of personnel and professionals.</p>

TRUANCY AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN: REASONS AND COUNSELLING EXPERIENCES

Background and Purpose: Truancy is one of the top discipline problems in Malaysia and the national prevalence of truancy indicates a significant number of students are truant. Counselling at school aims at helping schoolchildren in personality development and discipline. This qualitative study aims to research the experiences of counselling on schoolchildren who were reported for truancy. Methodology: The research participants involved ten schoolchildren who had played truant and were required to participate in counselling sessions. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations, and diary entries on two occasions for each participant. The data were analysed using thematic analysis to identify themes related to the participants’ experiences. Findings: The findings showed that the reasons for truancy among the school children involve self and relationship with others. After being in sessions with school counsellors, the children reported being more responsible, which included behavioural, emotional and goal-based changes. The relationship with the school counsellor allowed them to experience belongingness, which supported them in choosing positive behaviour, emotions and goals, which is related to having a sense of responsibility. Contributions: This paper argues that engaging in counselling with a school counsellor helped the schoolchildren to make responsible decisions about their behaviour, emotions and goals. The most important factor is the “relearning experience” in promoting responsibility among schoolchildren. Keywords: Qualitative research, truancy, belongingness, school counselling, responsibility. Cite as: Mat Min, R., Brahim, S. S., Mohd Yusoff, R. A., & Ramley, F. (2022). Truancy among school children: Reasons and counselling experiences. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 79-99. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp79-99

Attributions About Self-Harm: A Comparison Between Young People’s Self-Report and the Functions Ascribed by Preservice Teachers and School Counsellors

Globally, adolescent self-harm rates remain high, while help-seeking behaviour remains low. School staff are in a position to facilitate access to appropriate care for young people who self-harm (YPS-H), but little is known about gatekeepers’ attributions of self-harm or whether these attributions influence the support they provide. This study investigates the perceived functions of self-harm reported by potential gatekeepers and examines how these compare to the self-reported functions of self-harm in young people; 386 students from postgraduate teaching (n = 111), school counselling (n = 37), and undergraduate psychology (n = 238) programs completed a survey regarding their beliefs about YPS-H, which included the Inventory of Statements about Self-Harm. Responses were compared to those of 281 young people attending treatment at a suicide prevention program who completed the same measure. Preservice teachers, school counsellors and psychology students endorsed all functions of self-harm at a higher rate than treatment-seeking young people themselves. In particular, they endorsed interpersonal functions to a greater extent than the clinical reference group. The potential effect of greater endorsement of interpersonal influence as a function of self-harm gatekeeper’s responding to YPS-H is discussed.

The School Counsellor’s Role in Trauma-Aware Education

It is not unusual for school counsellors to be involved in trauma-aware education practice; however, their role is not uniformly defined in the literature nor consistently applied in professional settings. Trauma-aware education is relatively new but rapidly growing in Australia and beyond. It involves supporting students in a neuroscience-informed manner to address the impacts of complex trauma on their capacities to feel safe, to relate, to emotionally regulate, and to learn. Twenty-six school counsellors completed questionnaires, and eight of those joined focus group discussions to explore the role of school counsellors in trauma-aware practice in Queensland, Australia. Drawing on the voices of practitioners, the present report discusses categories of practice that are prioritised by school counsellors and recommends supports to effectively undertake trauma-aware practice in school settings.

THE RELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS ANXIETY AND COGNITIVE STYLES

The key to academic success is not only good quality teaching but also a individualized teaching and individualized approaching to the student’s cognitive styles of learning and anxiety. The present paper tries to answer the question if the teachers and school counsellors may help improve students’ learning by helping them to manage their behaviour and attitudes more effectively. Precisely, it postulates that as long as teachers may adapt their communication styles and teachings to the cognitive styles of their student’s better results and more efficient learning they will get from them. It first presents a short literature review of anxiety and of cognitive styles of learning the relation, followed by the relation between anxiety and the cognitive styles and it finally postulates the main methodological approaches that any teachers should adopt to make his teaching more effective having in mind the relation between the two variables. Finally, implications for teaching are discussed, as are suggestions for the future researches.