Peer Counseling: Addressing Bullying Issues Among Adolescents

Abstract

The problem of bullying is a severe issue among adolescents with far-reaching impacts on mental and social well-being. The increasing number of cases is often caused by poor handling and neglect, so victims do not get the psychological assistance they need. Peers have an essential role in adolescent development and can take a role in efforts to deal with bullying at school by becoming counselors for peers who need it. This study aims to improve the understanding and skills of peer counseling on student council cadres as agents of change in schools. This training combines psychoeducational methods to increase understanding of bullying and its implications, as well as providing peer counseling training to provide counseling skills to help peer victims of bullying. The subjects in this study were adolescents aged 13–15 years who were members of the intra-school organization (OSIS) and were taken using a purposive sampling technique totaling 31 subjects. This research is experimental research with a one-group pretest and posttest design. The results showed an increased understanding of bullying and skills in peer counseling. Based on the Wilcoxon test, it was found that the Asymp. Sig (2-tailed) value was 0.000 (sig. <0.05), so it was concluded that peer counseling training interventions were effective in increasing the understanding and skills of bullying and peer counseling.
 Keywords: adolescent, bullying, peer counseling training, psychoeducation, school