A comparative study of factors influencing guidance and counselling hel p-seeking behaviour among public secondary school students in nyeri and nairobi counties, Kenya

Secondary school students in Kenyan schools experience many problems which they are unable to handle on their own and most of them are reluctant to seeek counselling. This necessitated this study’s whose title was ‘a comparative study of factors influencing guidance and counselling help-seeking behaviour among public secondary school students in Nyeri and Nairobi counties, Kenya’. Some of the factors influencing counselling help seeking behaviour among secondary school students are student’s attitudes towards counselling and students’ gender. The purpose of this study therefore was to find out if the same factors influence counselling help seeking behaviour, among public secondary school students in Nyeri and Nairobi counties and also if the identified factors differ in the two counties. The study employed ex-post-facto causal comparative research design. Stratified random sampling procedure was used to select schools and students who participated in the study. The respondents of the study were 387 students from 20 public secondary schools from the sampled schools selected using stratified sampling method. Data was collected through administration of a questionnaire for students in the sampled schools. In data analysis, the t-test was used in testing hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study findings showed that, Nairobi County secondary school students had a more negative attitude towards guidance and counselling than those in Nyeri County. Further findings were that there was no significant gender difference in attitudes towards guidance and counselling help-seeking behaviour and students sought guidance and counselling from teacher counsellors. This study therefore recommends that, students to be enlightened on availability of guidance and counselling services in order to utilize them in prevention and solving problems before they go out of hand.