Students' attitudes towards counselling: across-cultural study

[摘要] English: The aim of this study was to explore students' attitudes towards the utilisation of counselling services. The influence of stigma (public and self-stigma), anticipated risk, and utility associated with disclosing personal information on students' attitude towards counselling were investigated. Furthermore, the role of gender and culture in students' attitude towards counselling was also explored. Social psychological approaches were employed to explain attitudes and the formation of attitudes. A mixed methods design was used in this exploratory study. Quantitative data were gathered using a structured self-report questionnaire, which consisted of pre-existing scales. Qualitative data were collected by using the nominal group technique and semi-structured individual interviews. Participants consisted of third-year male and female students from the black Sesotho-/Setswana-speaking and Afrikaans-speaking cultural groups, with and without counselling experiences. The quantitative sample consisted of 211 participants and the qualitative sample of 22.Various statistically significant differences were found regarding students' attitudes towards counselling across gender, culture groups and counselling experience. Furthermore, it was found that anticipated utility associated with disclosing personal information and self-stigma provides significant unique explanations for the variance in students' attitude towards counselling,Among the themes that emerged from the thematic analysis, secrecy was prominent. Two contrasting themes, namely being in counselling signifies weakness (or being flawed) versus being courageous, also emerged from the discussions. Very specific gender dynamics were observed: Social expectations prevent men from seeking help, and male students who have been to counselling are considered to be not strong enough or man enough. Both the cultural groups confirmed the existence of social norms that would make it difficult for students, particularly male students, to seek counselling.

[发布机构] University of the Free State