Contributors to Students’ Use of Counselling Services in Kenyan Universities

Abstract

Transition to university life can be stressful for all students. In mitigation, most universities including those in Kenya offer social support to students in form of counselling, financial assistance, health and academic support. Despite this it has been documented that only a minority of university students who experience psychological distress seek professional counselling. This paper looks at contributors to students’ use of counselling services in Kenyan universities. These are classified into four: the social and behavioural issues, academic issues, psychological issues and economic issues. The study applied descriptive survey research design guided by Person Centred and Social Learning Theories. Data was collected using questionnaires, in-depth interview schedules and Focus Group Discussions. The study findings indicate that both male and female students are faced with many counselling issues such as academic, psychological, social, personal, economic, health, physical, vocational and spiritual .It can be concluded that the threat to masculine ideology encourages males to have more positive attitude towards seeking help for academic issues and that female students seek social psychological counselling to help them gain understanding of root causes of their problems.

Key words: reasons, social and behavioural issues, academic issues, psychological issues, economic issues