Guidance and counseling support, counselor attitudes and student behavior in secondary schools in Tororo municipality, Uganda.

Abstract

This study examined guidance and counseling support, counselor attitudes, and student behavior. The objectives of the study included: a) to assess the level of guidance and counseling support. b) determine the level of counselor attitudes. c) to examine the quality of student behavior, and d) determine the relationship between guidance and counseling support, counselor attitudes and quality of student behavior. The study adopted a cross-sectional design with both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Questionnaire for teachers and questionnaire for students were used. Purposive sampling, proportionate sampling, simple sampling and stratified sampling were employed to select the total sample population of 7 counselors and 278 students. The findings revealed that there was moderate levels of guidance and counseling support and counselor attitude, and high level of student behavior. Also, guidance and counseling support was seen to have a strong positive relationship with student behavior (r=688, p=<0.1), while counselor attitudes was not. It was concluded that school administrators should provide adequate resources to support the guidance and counseling program and careful consideration should be made of the attitudes of persons appointed as school counselors.