IMPACT OF PEER COUNSELLING ON BEHAVIOUR CHANGE AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, ABUJA, NIGERIA

Abstract

Peer counselling is the encouraging concerted effort to harness the capacity which group members sharing common interests may console, appease, be friend, mediate and reconcile those who are alienated from one another. This study therefore examined the impact of peer counselling on behaviour change of secondary school students in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The research adopted a descriptive survey design. The study was guided by three research questions and three hypotheses. A sample of 378 secondary school students was drawn from the population of 39,872 students in public Senior Secondary Schools in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja using multi-stage sampling procedure. The sampling procedure involved the use of cluster sampling, purposive sampling, proportionate stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques. A structured questionnaire titled: Peer Counselling and Students’ Behaviour Change Scale (PCSBCS) developed by the researchers with reliability coefficient of 0.82 was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by two experts from the department of Guidance and Counselling. The average validity index of 0.78 was obtained. Mean and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions while the null hypotheses were tested using Chi-square goodness of fit at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that peer counselling has a significant impact on students’ academic behaviour change, social behavior change and emotional behavior change of secondary schools in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Based on the findings of the study it was recommended among others that there should be sensitization of principals, teachers and heads of guidance and counselling on the benefits of peer counselling on learners’ social adjustment is necessary.