Adolescence: Change and Continuity

Guidance Counsellors

Ever since Frank Parsons helped start a vocational counseling program for adolescents in 1908, the field of counseling has since been linked to adolescence. By implementing this program into the school system, it evolved into the type of school counseling we know today.

Counseling, as adopted by the American School Counselor Association (1990), "is a complex helping process in which the counselor establishes a trusting and confidential working relationship. The focus is on problem-solving, decision-making, and discovering personal meaning related to learning and development".

The purpose of this essay will be to examine the last section of the ASCA's definition. This essay will illustrate the common types of school counseling and the effects they have on students by looking at the way counselors and counseling can facilitate a student's self-esteem.

Canfield (1990) demonstrated that a student's level of self-esteem was related to their academic performance. He found these two factors to be positively correlated. This means that enhancing a student's self esteem, especially through counseling, can enhance their level of academic achievement.

The most common types of school counseling

• Individual Counseling
• Individual counseling can assume many kinds of counseling (i.e. academic, vocational). Specifically, individual counseling "is a personal and private interaction between a counselor and a student in which they work together on a problem or topic of interest" (ASCA 1990).
• Brief-Session Counseling
• School counselors are trained to conduct brief sessions, a small total amount, with their students (ASCA 1990). This type of counseling is used most often because of the large student to counselor ratio in public schools, thus limiting the amount of sessions a counselor can have with an individual student (Amatea 1989).

School counseling was shown to:

• Help students move in the direction of their goals and reduce uncomfortable feelings associated with their problems (Littrel et al. 1995).
• Help student's learn and raise self-esteem through modeling their counselor's behaviors and their levels of self-esteem (Wiggins and Giles 1984).
• Identify certain areas of behavior and thought that are influenced by a student's level of self-esteem. The counselor is then able to enhance the student's self esteem by correcting these issues (Walz 1991).
• Self-esteem is positively correlated with achievement in adolescence. Students with higher levels of self-esteem were shown to complete homework more often, participate in class more frequently, have fewer days of absenteeism, and ultimately have higher graduation rates (Canfield 1990).

References:

• Canfield, J. (1990). Improving students' self-esteem. Educational Leadership, 48, 48-50.
• Littrel, J.M., Malia, J.A., and Vanderwood, M. (1995). Single-session brief counseling in a high school. Journal of Counseling and Development, 73, 451-458.
• Walz, G. (1991). Counseling to enhance self-esteem (An ERIC/CAPS Digest). The ERIC
• Document Reproduction Service Number is ED 328 827.
• Wiggins, J.D. and Giles, T.A. (1984). The relationship between counselor's and student'sself-esteem as related to counseling outcomes. The School Counselor, 32, 18-22.

• American School Counselor Association. http://www.edge.net/asca/role.htm
• Teen Advice. http://www.teenadvice.org/counselors
• Adolescent Self-Esteem. http://www.tiac.net/biz/drmike/selfest.shtml

• Barona, Andres and Eugene E. Garcia, ed. (1990). Children at Risk: Poverty, Minority Status, and Other Issues in Educational Equity. Washington D.C.: National Association of School Psychologists.
• Margolis, Edwin and Stanley Moses. (1992). The Elusive Quest: The Struggle for Equality of Educational Opportunities. New York: Apex Press.
• Steinburg, Lawrence. (1996). Adolescence, Fourth Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, Inc.
• Walz, G.R. & Bleuer, J.C. (1992). Student self-esteem: A vital element of school success, Vol. 1. Counseling and Personnel Services, Inc.

This site was produced by students taking HDFS 433: The Transition to Adulthood and HDFS 239: Adolescent Development at the Pennsylvania State University. Feedback can be sent to the individual authors or to Nancy Darling (darling@bard.edu).

Last updated 4/16/01.