INFLUENCE OF COUNSELLING SERVICES ON EMOTIONAL STABILITY OF ADOLESCENT ORPHANS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF UPPER NYAKACH DIVISION, KISUMU COUNTY, KENYA.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Following the ban of corporal punishment in Kenyan schools and the enactment of the Children’s Act Cap 586, the Ministry of Education has been emphasizing the use of guidance and counselling as a way of addressing the needs of children in schools. Even though some progress has been made towards this end, many adolescent orphans learning in public secondary schools in Upper Nyakach Division continue to exhibit behavioural problems that manifest emotional difficulties. It is therefore imperative that lot more needs to be done in the public secondary schools in order to tackle the emotional challenges of adolescent orphans. During this crucial developmental stage, orphans may find it difficult to cope with the life stresses, loss of their parents as well as their studies, thus exhibiting emotional problems. The research was carried out to determine the influence of counselling services on emotional stability of adolescent orphans in public secondary schools of Upper Nyakach Division in Kisumu County, Kenya. Moreover, the study also investigated the effects of co-variates such as age and gender of the adolescent orphans on their emotional stability. To achieve this aim, the study adopted ex-post facto research design since the schools already had established guidance and counselling departments which carried out the service. A total population of 2875 adolescent orphans from 22 public secondary schools whose data was available at the Divisional Education Office in Upper Nyakach division was targeted. A sample of 338 orphans worked out using the sampling formula given by Kathuri and Pals was studied. Data was collected using questionnaires from the sample population. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data collected using R-Script and SPSS version 22.0 computer programmes. Report findings were based on respective p-values. The study revealed that there was a positive correlation between counselling services and emotional stability among adolescent orphans in public secondary schools in Upper Nyakach Division. It also revealed that there was no statistically significant gender and age difference in emotional stability among the adolescent orphans. The study concluded that adolescent orphans benefited from counselling services offered in public secondary schools with most of them indicating that they were more emotionally stable after going through counselling. The study therefore recommended that the Teachers Service Commission should appoint teachers with expertise in guidance and counselling to provide the services in public secondary schools and that the adolescent orphans should be encouraged to seek the counselling services.