Psychological Well-Being of School Counsellors Model

<p style="text-align: justify;">The school counselor’s role is increasingly challenging with various demands of students’ problems and the issue of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic also affect students’ psychosocial and mental well-being. Therefore, school counselors need to equip themselves with high psychological well-being as a self-care factor to deal with burnout, instability, and work stress. This study aims to develop Psychological Well-Being Model among school counsellors. A total of 330 secondary school counsellors from four districts in Selangor were selected as the respondents using the group random sampling method. Data were collected through translated questionnaire instruments, namely Self Compassion Scale, Counselling Self Estimate Inventory, The Assessing Emotions Scale, Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale Revised, and Psychological Well Being-Ryff. Confirmation Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) show that there is a significant positive relationship between self-compassion, counselling self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and the school counsellor’s psychological well-being. The findings also showed that self-compassion, counselling self-efficacy, emotional and spiritual intelligence affected 76.5% (R2 = 0.765) of variance in psychological well-being. This study is one of the earliest in presenting the school counsellor’s psychological well-being model who can contribute to Malaysian education. The implications of this study suggest that the elements of self-compassion, counselling self-efficacy, emotional and spiritual intelligence, and psychological well-being should be applied in the curriculum at the counsellor training level in university so that counsellors have adequate preparation in providing effective services in schools. The Ministry of Education Malaysia, on the other hand, needs to cultivate psychological well-being interventions regularly so that counsellors can always manage various students’ issues in schools as well as maintaining psychological well-being in terms of personnel and professionals.</p>

Digital Mental Health Support for Students in Higher Institutions in Nigeria During Pandemics

This chapter examined the challenges associated with students' mental health in a pandemic period like the COVID-19 era and the expected coordinated response measures that should be in place to mitigate such challenges with focus on the mental health of students in institutions of higher learning in Nigeria, the most populous nation on the continent of Africa. Specifically, the review strengthened the need for school counselors' going back to the drawing board to come up with modalities that could keep students psychologically and emotionally healthy. Students normally enjoy school community life but would have to adjust their patterns of social interactions during an outbreak of an infectious disease. The review explored and applied the assumptions of social support theory which laid emphasis on supportive relationships within social contexts. School counselors were charged in this chapter to engage their students' community with digital mental health support to help them remain mentally healthy in spite of the adverse events usually provoked by the presence of a pandemic.

Bullying and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Across schools, bullying under all of its forms (e.g., physical, verbal, relational, cyber) is a concerning phenomenon. Prevalence studies suggest that children with ASD are a particularly vulnerable population. Specifically, children with ASD are at a considerably higher risk of being bullied than their peers with other or no special educational needs. This chapter aims to examine in what way bullying occurs in ASD populations and what particular challenges individuals with ASD have to deal with. More specifically, the chapter describes and discusses key points in the existing literature on bullying and autism spectrum disorder, such as (1) types of bullying, (2) causes and determining factors, (3) risk and protective factors, (4) consequences of bullying, (5) prevention strategies and interventions where the transition to recommendations is made through thorough research specifically applied to this topic in order to provide theory and evidence-based practices for educators, teachers, school counselors, parents, and any other interested party.

Experiences With Elementary School Counseling Advocacy

Elementary school counselors are instrumental in student success and well-being; unfortunately, school counselors at the elementary level also have higher caseloads and more tenuous job opportunities. Thus, there exists a need to advocate for elementary school counseling. Previous research has examined school counseling advocacy across K–12 settings and included advocacy as one aspect of larger studies. Given this gap in the literature, we conducted a phenomenological investigation to examine the lived experiences of professionals who reported successfully advocating for elementary school counseling positions and roles. We discuss findings and implications, including applying results to the school counseling profession, in an effort to bolster elementary school counseling and better school counseling services to students.