PARENTAL AND PEER INFLUENCES ON ATTITUDE TOWARDS COUNSELLING AMONG STUDENTS OF CAC THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AKURE

Abstract

Positive attitude of students towards counselling is necessary in any level of education. Many studies had investigated self-esteem, social-economic status, emotional intelligence on attitude towards counselling of students in secondary schools but not in theological colleges. This study however investigated parental and peer factors as determinants of attitude towards counselling of students in CAC Theological Seminary, Akure. All students were used for the study. Reliable instruments were used to collect information from the respondents. Parental Factors Scale (r = 0.75), Peer Influence Scale (r = 0.74) and Attitude Towards Counselling Scale (r = 0.85) were used for data collection. Pearson product moment and multiple regression analysis were used for data analysis. The result shows that peer influence was related to (r = .365) while parental influence (r = .122) did not relate to attitude toward counselling of students in CAC Theological seminary. The independent variables jointly contributed to students’ attitude towards counselling (Adjusted R2 = 1.09, F2 = 5.261) and accounted to 13.4% contribution to attitude towards counselling. The parental influence (= -.025) did not contribute to students’ attitude towards counselling while peer influence (= 3.75) contributed to students’ attitude toward counsellings. It is recommended that parents of student should be more helpful in motivating the students to seek counselling and parents should train their children on how to associate themselves to friends who could help them to seek counsel in appropriate place for good performance in life and ministry.