THE EFFECT OF TRUST, ACCESSIBILITY OF SERVICES AND STIGMATIZATION ON THE PATRONAGE OF GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING SERVICES BY STUDENTS IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN KUMASI METROPOLIS/ASHANTI REGION

Abstract

Students need guidance in environment and health linkages, plus gaining attitudes, info, and skills that result in failure or success of life. Counseling is progressively vital to encourage well-being of a child. Effective advice and counseling must aid students improve their self-esteem and attain their life goals. It is critical to emphasize that thorough advice and counseling is one strategy to achieve educational greatness. Guidance and counselling services are widely recognized as being beneficial in molding the making of decision and pupils’ and employees’ thinking abilities. The study involved students at universities in the Kumasi metropolis in examining the effect of trust, accessibility of services and stigmatization on guidance and counseling services’ patronage. The study employed quantitative research with survey design. This study method was considered as explanatory to test the hypotheses. The population of the study was 3577 students at Kumasi Technical University and Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneural Development. The researcher employed a non-probability sampling which is a snowball sampling technique. The sample size was determined by the number of responses obtained which was 236. The researcher employed Google Forms to collect data. The quantitative tools used were Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 26) and Microsoft Excel to analyze data. The study revealed that trust was positively and significantly related with counseling and guidance services’ patronage by tertiary students. The study found that accessibility of services was positively and significantly related with counseling and guidance services’ patronage by tertiary students. The study further revealed that stigmatization was positively and significantly related with counseling and guidance services’ patronage by tertiary students.