Counseling services in the Peoples Republic of China

The principal vehicles for counseling in the Peoples Republic of China are the neighborhood council and the extended family. In addition to providing access to many services, the local council offers informal counseling to families and individuals in the neighborhood through peer helpers. This council is also the first level in a three-tiered health care delivery system. Informal counseling is sup-plemented with counseling from paraprofessional health care providers in the neighborhood clinics. Severe problems are referred to the second level — the district hospital — which usually has a psychiatric unit with medical psychologists able to deal with problems on both inpatient and outpatient bases. The third level of assistance is provided through specialized institutes that take a few severe psychological problems for treatment, research, and teaching purposes. Schools refer special behavior problems through the health care or political systems, but care for minor behavior and educational problems is provided through the teacher working with the family in the educational setting. While most counseling services are conducted informally through family and neighborhood council members, the disadvantage is the close linkage of counseling regulatory tasks with functions monitoring behavior and enforcing political policy. On balance, however, it appears that the array of services offered through local councils with a caring neighborly attitude outweighs the disadvantages of loss of privacy and pressures to conform to local behavioral expectations and political demands.     

A Method for Assessing Adaptive Ego Functioning Using the Thematic Apperception Test

This study was designed to determine if teachers employed in elementary schools that have maintained a counseling and guidance program would express more favorable attitudes toward counseling and guidance in the elementary schools than teachers employed in elementary schools which have not provided this service. Attitude scales were distributed to 566 teachers and 388 were returned completed. Analysis of Variance revealed a trend in which teachers employed in elementary schools that have maintained a counseling and guidance providing for at least 2 years expressed more favorable attitudes than teachers employed in elementary schools not providing these services. In addition, significant differences between counties were found, which indicated that other factors influenced the teacher attitudes.     

African American College Students,the Black Church,and Counseling

African American undergraduate students face numerous challenges during college; however, they are less likely to seek help from college counseling services. Often, African Americans seek support from spiritual resources. In the current phenomenological study, participants shared in a focus group interview. Overall, participants seemed to value the Black Church as an integral part of their lives and as an influence on their perceptions of counseling and proclivity to seek counseling services.     

Student Athletes' Perceived Barriers to and Preferences for Seeking Counseling

The purpose of this study was to investigate attitudes of intercollegiate student athletes regarding their use of counseling services. The authors assessed student athletes’ perceived barriers to seeking counseling services and their preferred characteristics of a helping professional. Several barriers to counseling were identified. Results suggest student athletes have strong preferences for counselor characteristics, including familiarity with sports, gender, and age. Practical applications of these findings are discussed.     

Research: Students' Perceptions of Need for Personal Counseling Services in Community Colleges

Although the need for personal counseling services is on the rise across college campuses in the United States, many community colleges do not offer personal counseling services on campus. Instead, community college counseling services focus primarily on academic and career advising. The purpose of this study was to survey community college students in North Carolina to determine their interest in and need for a personal counseling center on campus. Participants were 134 men and 202 women, 18–68 years of age. Of the participants, 70% indicated that having a personal counseling center on campus would be “very helpful” or “helpful.” Results are discussed, and recommendations are made for college counselors working in community college settings.     

Internalizing or externalizing: Screening for both problem youth

This study is an initial report of work to develop simple procedures to screen out children and adolescents who internalize or externalize their psychological problems. Such screening procedures can easily be used in classrooms by teachers, peers, children themselves or other observers who know the students in class. Most children are referred to counseling services because they are disturbing to others or externalizing their problems. However, other children who internalize their problems get much less attention of teachers and referral to counseling services. Instead of working mainly with referred children, counselors need to make sure that both children are screened out so that their services could be equally disturbed. The screening procedures in this study are intended to help in identifying particularly the "internalizer" who may get neglected in distribution of counseling services.     

College Counseling and Student Retention: Research Findings and Implications for Counseling Centers

College counseling centers may come under increasing scrutiny by administrators regarding how their services contribute to student retention. College counselors can use data to demonstrate a positive influence of counseling on retention, but they also need to educate administrators that student retention should be a consideration among many when evaluating the efficacy of services. The author reviews findings from studies on the impact of college counseling on retention and addresses implications for counseling centers.     

The Profession of College Career Services Delivery: What College Counselors Should Know About Career Centers

College career centers provide a valuable resource to students faced with choosing a major, learning about different career fields, and securing internships and jobs. Career centers must provide an increasingly sophisticated array of one-on-one and virtual services in order to meet the needs of students and recruiters. Collaborations between the career services office and other departments, including the college counseling center, are necessary to address students' needs in a holistic manner. The author describes the organizational structure of college career centers and services typically offered, discusses psychological correlates of career development and the integration of personal and career counseling, and provides suggestions for how counseling center and other college professionals can collaborate with their career services office.     

Examination of Chinese homeroom teachers’ performance of professional school counselors’ activities

Chinese homeroom teachers’ performance of professional school counselor activities was explored. A total of 109 homeroom teachers in Beijing and Harbin, China reported their performance of 68 different school counseling activities as part of their regular actions as a homeroom teacher. Results found that on average homeroom teachers performed a wide variety of counseling tasks and together almost all tasks were performed by homeroom teachers. Further, participants reported frequently providing individual counseling to students on a range of concerns. Findings in this study support calls for the continued development of school counseling in China, hiring more school counselors, and additional training for homeroom teachers. Limitations, recommendations, and avenues for future research are described.     

Applying Cultura in the Community College Counseling Practice

Latino students represent the fastest-growing population in the state of California, the United States, and the California Community College (CCC) system. Unfortunately, compared to other ethnic groups, Latino community college students continue to lag academically. Given the importance of counseling services and the scarce research related to community college students and community college counseling services, this study explored how 26 first-generation, low-income, Latino community college students perceived, negotiated, and developed a relationship with their community college counselor. Using a qualitative grounded theory research design, participants’ counseling experiences were captured through face-to-face semistructured in-depth interviews, and a theoretical model was developed. This study extended the literature on the importance of community college counseling services in assisting and motivating students to reach transfer and graduation and emphasized students’ positive and negative counseling experiences. The research findings suggest a need to improve community college counseling services. Thus, based on the research findings and other published research, this study proposes a set of the following: (a) guidelines for applying cultura (culture) to community college counseling that can assist relationship building between students and counselors; (b) questions that can be included in students’ evaluation of counselors; (c) counselor interview questions that may elicit behavioral response and assess cultural competence; and (d) community college students’ preferred counselor characteristics that may be used by hiring committees.     

Utilizing Partnerships to Maximize Resources in College Counseling Services

Research indicates an increasing number of college students are experiencing severe psychological problems that are impacting their academic performance. However, many colleges and universities operate with constrained budgets that limit their ability to provide adequate counseling services for their student population. Moreover, accessing off-campus mental health services can be difficult for college students, in particular community college students, for a variety of reasons. This article describes a partnership between a community college and university that utilizes a graduate training program to provide on-campus counseling to both student populations enabling both institutions to maximize their resources.     

Practicing in the 21st Century College Counseling Center

Although college and university counseling centers often struggle with misperceptions of their work and their role in the campus community, limited research has addressed this issue. In this article, common campus misperceptions are explored. Among the issues that often increase the misperception of counselors and counseling services include misunderstandings by campus departments about the role of counseling for students, the perception that counseling is often a solution to any emotional or behavioral issue, and the difficulty of avoiding dual relationships with students on many campuses. Implications for campus counseling centers, including strategies for combating misperceptions, are discussed.     

Small College Counseling Centers:

College counseling centers have experienced continued change and development in roles and functions since their inception in the 1930s. Recent shifts include a focus on personal counseling, the broadening of services, and an increased severity in student problems. Administrative policy, restricted staffing, and limited budgets particularly impact small college counseling centers. This article explore these issues through a case study format and discusses the concurrent philosophical and training implications as challenges for the small college counseling center of the 1990s.     

Social Reinforcement Counseling as an Adjunct to a Course in Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine what effects social reinforcement counseling has on attitudes toward teaching and accuracy of teacher attitude self-estimation held by beginning education students. Teacher attitudes were assessed by the MTAI. Seventy-eight education students at the Ohio State University were randomly divided into three groups that received individual counseling, group counseling, and no counseling for four sessions with social reinforcement as the major technique. The results of the study lend support to conclusions which follow. First, social reinforcement counseling in individual or group setting is more effective for changing attitudes toward teaching, but not effective for increasing students' accuracy of self-estimated teacher attitudes. Second, social reinforcement counseling in groups is as effective as individual counseling for changing MTAI scores of beginning education students.     

Is there a future for school counseling in the United States?

School counseling in the United States is going through a very difficult period. Reasons for the difficulties are discussed. Suggestions are offered for modifications in counseling practice and in counselor education needed to overcome the current problems. Hopefully, the issues raised in the paper will be especially relevant in those countries which have relied heavily on literature and expertise from the United States in developing their counseling services.     

HANDICAPPED STUDENT SATISFACTION

This study was undertaken to investigate the relationships between selected student characteristics and measures of perceived campus and support service satisfaction of handicapped students enrolled in three comprehensive community colleges in Missouri. It was expected that specific information could be provided for decision making at the participating institutions regarding the handicapped student with special consideration to campus factors and support services. Significant correlations were found between students’ usage of specific services and their satisfaction with campus environments in general. Those specific services include: vocational evaluation, vocational counseling, instructional modification, and consumer services. Significant correlations were found between students’ usage of support services and their satisfaction with those services. High usage‐high satisfaction services included: learning centers, tutors, counseling, instruction modification, test arrangement, career exploration, job placement, equipment modification, notetakers, readers, and writers. Handicapped students used and were satisfied with the majority of services provides.     

Reflections on the History of South African Student Counseling Services: Achievements,Challenges, and a Way Forward

Student counseling services are a recognizable feature of higher education institutions locally and abroad. This article reviews the sociohistorical development and evolution of student counseling services in South African institutions of higher learning, with an emphasis on systemic influences, achievements, and contemporary challenges. This article considers the progress that has been made thus far with respect to the development of the service within higher education, while also attending to issues that require continued reflection and investigation. These include the current status and position of the service in South African higher education, the evolving roles of student counselors, as well as their relationship with institutional stakeholders and the broader South African community. In so doing, this article hopes to augment existing historical perspectives on student counseling by encouraging a critical reappraisal of student counseling’s past, its present, and its future in a dynamic South African and global context.     

Rates and Predictors of Counseling Center Use Among College Students of Color

A comparison of institutional enrollment data and counseling center service utilization data at 66 universities showed that neither ethnic minority students nor European American students under‐ or overutilized counseling services (Study 1). Data from Study 2 examining students in the general campus bodies at 45 institutions indicated that utilization of counseling center services for students of various ethnicities was predicted by the ethnic composition of the counseling center staff. Among students of color, utilization of campus counseling services was predicted by greater psychological distress, less family support, and a history of previous psychological problems.     

师范院校社会服务功能定位探析

社会服务是大学的三大基本功能之一,参与社会服务是师范院校应对外部挑战和自身生存发展的需要。当前,师范院校在社会服务功能定位方面存在两种偏向:有的学校无视社会功能,有的学校却盲目地参与社会服务。这两种做法都不利于师范院校的社会服务职能的正常发挥。正确的做法是,依据不同类型师范院校自身的条件,准确定位社会服务的范围和内容,积极开展形式多样的社会服务活动,促进师范院校特色的发展。