APPENDICES
2.3 Participants’ experiences of School Psychological Services
2.3.1 Adolescence: Why it stands out?
2.3.1.4 Adolescents’ attitude towards seeking help and counselling
The focus of the study is adolescents and whether or not they would voluntarily access help if available. According to Gladding (2000), Gouws et al., (2000) and Tatar (2001) of all developmental phases, adolescence is fraught with developmental challenges and emotional problems. In an explorative study on whether adolescents would seek help from anyone
whenever necessary, Kgole (2004) revealed that there were some reservations on the part of adolescents about consulting professionals. Although, as Kgole (2004) referred to adolescence as a period of emotional storm and stress, and adolescents being prone to mental health disturbances for which they needed to develop coping skills, they nevertheless considered seeking help as the last resort. Problem-focused coping (that is, help-seeking), according to Kgole (2004), is a process involving a series of decisions and is affected by factors such as problem definition, issues of confidentiality, issues of trust and priority. Adolescents sought help only when they believed that they would receive help and, instead of accepting responsibility for causing it, the problem was attributed to external causes.
Kgole’s (2004) study moots that the underutilization of professional services by adolescents was related to a negative attitude towards the professionals and preference for using informal sources such as family and friends. According to Kgole (2004), seeking help from professionals such as counsellors can be emotionally costly and threatening, hence adolescents preferred their friends and peers. Friends were preferred above any other source to confide in because they are more supportive, less judgemental and offered valuable advice. Educators, on the other hand, struggled to maintain confidentiality and were judgemental (Kgole, 2004). Seeking help, as Kgole (2004) notes, can buffer one’s reaction to stress, leading to better adjustment and fewer emotional and behavioural problems. However, some of the barriers to seeking help were that adolescents felt that defining the problem was too personal, the lack of confidentiality, a preference for handling the problem autonomously and the perception of helplessness. Kgole (2004) states that adolescents’ reluctance to seek help was due to ‘social reservation’- the feeling that they would be humiliated for seeking help and be viewed as a sign of weakness and shame. Tatar (2001)
calls it the ‘avoidance-avoidance conflict’, a choice between suffering in silence or approaching a stranger and being subjected to the societal stigma. Concerning the cultural context, Kgole (2004) states that help-seeking behaviour was culturally determined as cultural values, norms and expectations influenced and shaped beliefs. Generally people would be more comfortable to seek help from someone who spoke the same language as them and would be more at ease with people of the same cultural background. In this way it would not be likened to ‘stripping oneself naked in front of a total stranger’.
Kgole’s (2004) study also probed “if there was a relationship between adolescents’ help seeking behaviour and the Life Orientation or guidance programme (LOP)”. According to Kgole (2004) learners found school guidance to be inadequate regarding helping them with their personal concerns. This was more so because it was seen as an extra subject, neglected and allocated to educators regardless of relevant qualifications. Van der Riet and Knoetze (2004) describe help seeking as the “process of finding resources to assist in the solving of a problem or concern” (p.
224) and identified self-awareness, affordability, knowledge of resources, confidentiality, stigma and usefulness of therapy as the barriers to help seeking.
Although LOP was compulsory for all learners there was no clear policy directive about how to train educators in its provision (Kgole, 2004). Adolescents – regardless of context and gender – experience similar kinds of problems and interpersonal relationships present the most serious challenges and the family provides a solid anchor for adolescents which determine how they would cope with peer pressure. Learners concerns about confidentiality and fear of being
discussed in staff meetings were some of the reasons behind the underutilization of professionals and more reliance on informal sources.
Concerning adolescents’ perception of counselling, adults, in general, believe that adolescents experience turmoil and difficult challenges in the search for and formation of their identity.
According to Tatar (2001, p. 214), mental health workers and secondary school educators viewed moodiness, difficulties with interpersonal and family relationships, and confusion and concern about the future as normal aspects of adolescence. As Tatar (2001, p. 214) put it, the ‘storm and stress’ model is inherent in the transition stage from childhood to adulthood and conflicts between parents and their adolescent children are characteristic of this model. Hence, adolescence is now viewed as a stage in which youngsters repeatedly negotiate their self- identities while confronting their environment. Counsellors embrace two perceptions of adolescence, a deterministic perspective regarding the difficulties adolescents face, and a less rigid view according to which counselling can make a difference in adolescents’ lives.
It is widely recognised that a large proportion (estimated at 15-20%) of the adolescent population suffers from a high level of psychological disturbance (Gouws et al., 2000; Tatar, 2001).
Moreover, parents of adolescents attribute great importance to adolescents’ level of stress as affecting their social and academic functioning. Poor mental health during adolescence has been linked with behaviours that can damage both physical and mental well-being in adulthood (Tatar, 2001). According to Dawson and Singh-Dhesi (2010), a mentally healthy individual can develop psychologically, emotionally and spiritually; initiate, develop and sustain mutually satisfying personal relationships; use and enjoy solitude; become aware of others and empathise with them;
play and learn; develop a sense of right and wrong, and resolve problems and learn from them”.
Child mental health, as Lockhat and Van Niekerk (2000) put it, rests on four pillars, namely, a sound physical constitution; a nurturing family; a positive school or apprenticeship; and a supportive, stable and safe community life. According to Sigelman and Rider (2006),
“significant mental health problems – real signs of storm and stress – characterise about 20% of adolescents. Moreover, many of these adolescents were maladjusted before they reached puberty and continue to be maladjusted during adulthood”. It is a period of heightened vulnerability to some forms of psychological disorder, with teenagers facing greater stress than children; they must cope with physical maturation, changing brains and cognitive abilities, tribulations of dating, changes in family dynamics, moves to a new and more complex school settings, societal demands to become more responsible and to assume adult roles, and more. Mood swings, risk taking, and conflicts with parents are all common (Sigelman & Rider, 2006).
Research reveals a gap between adolescents’ need for professional help in reducing psychological pressures and their actual rate of approach to psychologists, counsellors and social workers. While some studies report that adolescents are willing to approach a school-based clinic for help (Riggs & Cheng, 1987), others have shown that a relatively small number of adolescents actually seek out, or would be willing to seek out, school counsellors or psychologists when in distress (Friedman, 1991; Kgole, 2004). According to Tatar (2001, p. 214) the dilemma of whether or not to seek help especially from an adult might reflect the ‘avoidance-avoidance’
conflict experienced by an adolescent, which is characterised by the adolescent’s belief that ‘If I do not ask for help I shall continue to suffer and feel discomfort, but if I ask for help I shall pay a personal and societal price for the approach itself’.
Apparently, one personal factor that might impede adolescents’ willingness to approach professional counsellors is that the adolescents themselves harbour feelings of embarrassment.
They are inhibited especially by the idea of talking to a stranger about personal matters or to count on him or her to maintain confidentiality. Furthermore, they may avoid approaching counsellors because of the accompanying societal stigma, which might involve them being identified as problematic and unsuccessful. Often, they do not know how to access help, or harbour some cultural mistrust or perceptions that are academic and not personal in nature.
Paradoxically - as Tatar (2001, p. 215) notes - adolescents who avoid turning to a counsellor because of the negative stereotype attached to counselling may actually be those who need counselling most. From the above, it is apparent that the images adolescents have of the counsellor seem to be a critical factor underlying counsellors’ ability to provide professional service.
In the same vein, Ciarrochi, Deane, Wilson and Rickwood (2002, p. 174) contend that seeking and receiving help from a health professional can assist in the reduction of distressing psychological symptoms, yet few who experience significant psychological distress seek professional help. Mental health disorders are most prevalent among young people, yet very few young people seek professional psychological help; most seek help from a variety of sources such as family members, friends, and educators. According to Ciarrochi et al., (2002, p. 174) there is a relationship between basic emotional competencies (for example, emotion perception, awareness, and management) and people’s intention to seek help. Emotional competence in this case is defined as “the ability to identify and describe emotions, the ability to understand
emotions, and the ability to manage emotions in an effective and non-defensive manner”
(Ciarrochi et al., 2002). Their research finding was that low emotional competence is associated with lower intention to seek help. Those who are less skilled at managing emotions are less likely to seek help from family and friends for both emotional problems and suicidal ideation.
These relationships held even after controlling for hopelessness.
As Mashau et al. (2008) puts it, the availability of education support services is a sine qua non for the establishment and maintenance of sound, quality, educational relationships between educator and learner. Psychological Services (or education support services) are meant to establish a psychological environment which would simultaneously be conducive to enhancing learners’ mental health and promoting effective teaching and learning.
Based on their needs for Psychological Services, it is thus important for me to investigate whether or not such services are available in schools, and whether and how the services satisfied learners’ needs. However, if services are under-utilised, we must seek ways of making the services accessible and relevant to learners’ needs.