Impact of Guidance and Counselling Services on Students’ Behaviour Modificatio between Selected Public Urban and Rural Secondary Schools in Rift Valley Province, Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to establish and compare the impact of guidance and counselling services on students’ behaviour modification in social and emotional adjustment in the selected public urban and rural secondary schools in Rift Valley Province, Kenya. The study adopted ex post-facto causal comparative research design The research population was form 4 students in 24 secondary schools from municipality: Eldoret, Naivasha and Nakuru,and rural/district: Uasin Gishu, Kuresoi and Molo Simple random, stratified and purposive sampling techniques were used to select 346 students, 48 school counsellors and 48 school administrators as respondents. Quantitative data was collected by administering questionnaires to students and school guidance counsellors while Qualitative data was collected through conducting an interview schedule to school administrators. Questionnaires were pilot tested before use and were found to have reliability coefficient of 0.8. The study employed one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance.The Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0.helped in data analysis. The findings of the study indicated that guidance and counselling services in secondary schools had statistically significant impact on the level of social and emotional adjustments. Rural schools indicated high level of impact of guidance and counselling services where female students expressed higher level of behaviour modification in social and emotional adjustment It was concluded that guidance and counselling services in secondary schools helps in modifying students’ behaviour in social and emotional adjustments. Stakeholders in education sector and other youth institutions could find these findings useful in addressing secondary schools students’ social and emotional needs.

Keywords: Behaviour Modification, Guidance and Counselling Services, Social and Emotional Adjustment, Rural andUrban Secondary Schools