Master of Arts (Counselling & Guidance)

Studies into primary to secondary school transition tend to focus on its impact on academic attainment and curricula demands than on the importance of social and emotional needs from the perspectives of the young boys and girls. Transition marks the end of childhood and herald the beginning of adolescence (Humphrey & Ainscow, 2006) for the adolescents. Coinciding with a convergence of biological, personal, social, familial, and cultural developments (Rutter, 1980), the transiting adolescents leave behind a familiar and indulgent environment and childhood friends to enter an emotionally challenging and academically demanding environment – unready socially and emotionally. Losing friends is another challenge since peer group membership plays a critical role in providing support, sense of belonging, reassurance, and security at this stage in their schooling (Pratt & George, 2005).

Research has shown that the adolescents needed help to develop appropriate social and emotional coping skills (Qualter, Whiteley, Hutchinson, & Pope, 2007) and that Social Emotional Learning (SEL) intervention programs have helped students to better manage their emotions and cognitive processes (Zins, J.E., Bloodworth, Weissberg, & Walberg, 2004).

This is the subject of my study which investigated and measured the effects of exposure to SEL in the initial weeks of the students’ entry into their new school, a critical period (Gillison, Standage, & Skevington, 2008). Results after participating in the 8-session researcher-developed intervention program, tentatively named, “You and Your Changing World – the SEL Way,” showed positive and meaningful effect on all four subscales of social, emotion, self-awareness and self-management. The almost full participants’ attendance and positive answers to semi-structured interview questions provided further evidence of success of the program in the introduction of SEL awareness and competencies.

The purpose of this study serves to understand the needs of counselling supervision in Singapore schools. Through the individual interviews with twelve Allied Educators (AED)(Counselling), also known as the Full-Time School Counsellor (FTSC), this study investigates the process of school counselling, the counsellor's self-efficacy and their needs for clinical supervision to improve on their counselling skills and benefits for their counselee.

FTSCs in Singapore are mainly teachers who had transferred from the teaching post to becoming a counsellor for schools after attending a six-month course provided by the Ministry of Education (MOE). Supervision is available currently for the FTSCs of Singapore schools in the form of monthly group supervision conducted at cluster level. However studies on the counselling experiences and supervision needs of our FTSCs are by and large lacking. This study aims as a beginning to hear the voices of our FTSCs from their perspectives in the areas of their counselling practice, supervision needs and perceived self-efficacy.

The participants in this study consist of twelve FTSCs selected from across the schools in Singapore by randomization. Individual interviews are conducted with each of them and their responses are transcribed and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This method will identify the self-efficacy and clinical supervision needs of the participants as they progress from newly trained school counsellors to their current expertise. Specifically, the data collected with respect to existing and preferred supervision practices, the perceived gains and barriers to supervision will be studied. Analysis of these data will lead to the thematic grouping of the FTSC's feedback and point to the importance of providing effective clinical supervision in school counselling through the development of a plan for clinical supervision. The knowledge on the findings in this study will help in aligning MOE's provision of supervision more closely o the actual needs of our FTSCs. The impact of this plan on the FTSC's self-efficacy and professionalism can be further explored in future studies on this field.

This study examines the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)-Relaxation as an intervention strategy for students with a predisposition towards anger. The literature reveals that anger treatment using CBT is a common approach, with moderate treatment efficacy. Based on fifty studies involving over a thousand subjects, it was found that CBT produced a grand mean weighted effect size of 0.70. suggesting that the average CBT recipient fared better than 76% of untreated subjects in terms of anger reduction. However, the use of CBT in the context of schools in Singapore has been sparsely explored. This study, carried out with first year students in a secondary school, aims to close this gap.

Sixty secondary one students who scored in the upper quartile on the Trait Anger Scale (STAXI-2; Spielberger, 1998) were identified to participate in this programme. These pupils were randomly assigned to either the Experimental group or the Control group. The students in the Experimental group participated in eight weekly one-hour intervention sessions. The Experimental group received intervention that focused on relaxation techniques, self-talk and problem solving skills, while the Control group did not receive any treatment.

The findings, which were collected immediately after the intervention showed that adolescents who participated in CBT-Relaxation demonstrated lower level of Trait Anger, that CBT-Relaxation was effective in helping the students reduce their anger expression, and that Trait Anger correlated negatively with general Anger Expression.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate the father identity by exploring fathers’ past experiences of being fathered, his present fathering experiences and his future concerns. One-to-one interviews were utilized to answer three research questions: what are the types of relationships and/or interactions that these men had with their fathers, what are some of the principles of fathering that fathers currently execute, would like to execute and finally, are being executed but are undesirable, and what are some of the challenges that fathers face in living out his ideals in being the father that he would like to be? The participants were eight young fathers, Chinese, ages ranging from 36 years old to 50 years old and were Christians. All participants come from intact families, are in full-time employment and have children from the ages of 4 to 12 years old. This study found that fathers and sons had generally respectful relationships but with some exceptions, with father being the main teacher and provider figure in their sons’ lives. Interaction was mainly verbal and love was shown through deeds and actions. The nature of the relationship was later seen to greatly influence future practices and identities when the participants started their own families. Participants were found to have reworked, modeled after or devised new practices of their own, with their own fathers being a point of reference to follow, but only to a certain extent. The challenges cited by participants were current day issues, such as the lack of time due to busy schedules and the pressures of today’s society, rather than issues stemming from his past.

This study examines self and social support factors which potentially influence the academic resilience of Singapore secondary school students. Self variables of academic efficacy, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning and academic self-concept, and social support variables of peer and family support for learning are examined for their relationship with academic resilience in a secondary school.

A sample of 166 secondary two school students from a mainstream secondary school in Singapore participated in the study. They were administered a self-report questionnaire that involved rating on a seven-point Likert-type scale, their judgments, perceptions and beliefs about themselves with regards to academic efficacy, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, academic self-concept, and peer and family support for learning.

The findings suggest that as a group, the three self factors had a significant relationship with academic resilience. In addition, the study also surfaced how each factor contributes to academic resilience. Among the self factors, academic efficacy registered the strongest relationship with academic resilience while surprisingly, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning was not found to be associated with academic resilience. Among the social support factors, peer support for learning is more strongly associated with academic resilience compared to family support for learning. Finally, as a single variable, academic efficacy emerged as the strongest predictor of academic resilience.

This study contributes to a growing body of research which highlights the educational and psychological correlates of academic resilience. It provides evidence for the cross-cultural applicability of these self and social support factors to the academic resilience of Singapore students. The implications and limitations of the research findings and recommendations for future research are also discussed.

The dissertation investigated the impact of group supervision in enhancing school counsellors’ professionalism and self-efficacy in Singapore. In the aspect of professionalism, it specifically explored the impact structured group supervision has, firstly, on counsellors’ competence in micro and macro-counselling skills; and secondly, their work commitment in school counselling. The study also investigated the relations between these three variables: counselling competence, work commitment and self-efficacy. A total of 21 school counsellors with minimum of six months of counselling experience in a school context, and together with one qualified counselling supervisor, participated in the study. A structured questionnaire, with three different scales, was devised to measure school counsellors’ counselling competence, work commitment and counselling self-efficacy, using Likert-type scales as the response format for all scale items. Overall, the results indicated that structured group supervision for school counsellors has enhanced their professionalism and self-efficacy. Specifically, counselling competence and self-efficacy have significantly increased after the supervision process, while work commitment has a non-significant increase. Furthermore, there was a strong correlation between counselling self-efficacy and competence, while the study showed work commitment has a moderate correlation with counselling competence and self-efficacy.

The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between gaming addiction and academic performance as well as social relationship among primary school pupils. The sample consisted of 135 pupils aged 10 to 11 years from two neighbourhood primary schools in Singapore. A survey using questionnaire was used to collect information from the schoolchildren, while their grades were obtained directly from their examination results from their teachers. Statistical data analysis included descriptive and inferential statistic (Correlation and T-test) were used to analyse the data. The findings showed that addiction tendencies are negatively related to academic performance and social relationship. The problem of gaming addiction is a cause for concern and should be taken seriously. It is important to take preventive measures to avoid any gaming addiction. The implications of these findings and future research were discussed.

This study examined the relationship between the dependent variable, pathological Internet use and the independent variables, parenting practices, social isolation together with depression found among secondary school students in Singapore.

The analysis revealed that parental attachment (an element of parenting practices) had a significant negative correlation with pathological Internet use while parental control, social isolation and depression correlated positively with PIU. Setting rules and regulations to regulate Internet use for the youth seemed to show the reverse of the expected consequence which was non pathological Internet use. This was consistent with the negative correlation between parental control and parental attachment. The latter according to Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory when lacking could contribute to deviant behaviour. Social isolation and depression are plausible predictors of pathological Internet use as shown in the findings.

The current study aimed to compare the psychological and physical health outcomes of a group of long-term mindfulness meditators and demographically similar non-meditators. It also sought to investigate the mediator role of irrational beliefs between mindfulness and the health outcomes. A cross-sectional design was adopted with 70 long-term mindfulness meditators and an equal number of non-meditators. All were Chinese Buddhists matched on gender. The majority of meditators had between one and five years of experiences and reported engaging in mindfulness practice on an average of more than 20 minutes but less than 60 minutes weekly. Results showed that meditators presented with significantly better psychological health outcomes than non-meditators fter controlling for education. Specifically, meditators scored significantly higher on measures of mindfulness, self-compassion, satisfaction with life conditions and statistically lower on emotional distress as well as irrational beliefs. Amongst the meditators, mindfulness was found to be positively correlated with self-compassion and satisfaction with life conditions, but inversely associated with irrational beliefs and emotional distress. Furthermore, hierarchical regression analysis showed that mindfulness, self-compassion and satisfaction with life conditions predicted emotional distress. On the other hand, emotional distress predicted somatic symptoms. Using the Sobel test, it was found that irrational beliefs mediated the relationship between mindfulness and self-compassion, satisfaction with life conditions and emotional distress. Most of the results yielded were consistent with findings from existing literature. Recommendations for future direction, implications for clinical practice and limitations were also discussed.

Peers are often regarded as one of the pillars of strengths in people lives. This paper aims to explore the experiences of counsellors and their therapeutic exchanges through peer consultation. The research study focused on the theoretical foundations of several supervision and peer consultation models and explored therapeutic factors especially elaborated by Irvin Yalom. A qualitative research design was chosen using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a specific tool in processing the data collected. These research designs were chosen due to its strength in making meanings and exploring live experiences of participants, which are core foundations of this paper. The richness of these live experiences was then unfolded through the process of an in-depth interview done with the participants. Sharing of feelings and emotions articulated by the participants were then formulated into themes and patterns, which are key in the process of IPA. Results gathered from the study generally showed that counsellors were exposed to positive experiences through peer consultation. The findings also suggested that the degree of positive experiences felt would be dependable on several other factors. The findings also discovered that respondents largely associate a sense of universality, interpersonal learning and intrapersonal learning as factors that contribute to their therapeutic experiences. The ability to see from wider perspectives, learn from peers and reflect on their strengths and weaknesses made respondents more aware of their action and purpose of them being in the counseling profession. From the study, new therapeutic discovery such as shaping positive culture were discovered. The information gathered in this study will complement the continuous efforts of counselling practitioners, schools, ministries and social service organisations to ensure that the training, service standards and supply of counsellors are continuously maintained and developed to meet the ever challenging demands of counsellors for the country.

In view of the increasing attention paid to mental healthcare in the nation, this study addresses the self-care patterns of mental health professionals (MHP) in Singapore. It also sheds light on the types of personal and work stressors that this population faces. A major focus is directed towards the utilisation of personal therapy, which is known as a popular self-care option by more than 75% of MHP in previous studies conducted in USA and Europe. In the present study, a survey was conducted with a convenient sample of 206 MHP, including counsellors, psychologists, social workers and psychiatrists. Results show that the most common work stressors were difficult clients, uncertainty about best intervention and too much paperwork; and the most frequent self-care options were spending time with loved ones, engaging in religious activities, and reading or engaging in a hobby. Among all the MHP surveyed, 73 (35.4%) had sought personal therapy, mostly to address marital or relational issues, divorce and their children’s problems. MHP with previous experience in personal therapy had more positive attitude towards entering therapy and less self-stigma, than MPH without previous experience. Furthermore, MHP with psychodynamic orientation utilised personal therapy more than practitioners of other theoretical persuasions. However, in terms of gender, age, and concern with face-loss, there was no difference between the group that had utilised personal therapy and the group that had not. Implications for individual and institutional efforts towards self-care and personal therapy are discussed.

This study aims to examine the relationship between vocational interests and multiple intelligences among Singapore secondary school students. A total of 132 secondary four students from different educational streams agreed to participate in this study. The participants completed a demographic factors questionnaire and two self-administered instruments. The first one was the online self-administered Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales (MIDAS). The MIDAS has 119 items to generate a MIDAS profile in the eight constructs of intelligences: the Musical, Bodily-kinesthetic, Logical-mathematics, Spatial, Linguistic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalist intelligences. The other was a paper/pen administered Self-Assessment of Interests Activity instrument. This has 108 items that explore vocational interest in the six categories of Holland’s RIASEC model of Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. The data collected were analysed using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 19.0 (SPSS v. 19.0). The Independent T-Test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare multiple intelligences and vocational interests between groups of educational steams and gender. Pearson’s correlation was used to analyse the correlations between vocational interests and multiple intelligences. Results of the study showed that by gender, there were significant differences in the Realistic vocational interest with high score in the males, and Artistic vocational interests with high score in the females; by course of study there were significant differences with high scores in Investigative, and Enterprising vocational interests in the express course, and Artistic vocational interest in the normal course. As for intelligences by gender there were significant differences, with high scores in females for Musical intelligence, and high score for Intrapersonal intelligence in the males. There were no differences in multiple intelligences of students in the three different courses of study. Correlation between vocational interests and multiple intelligences were significant but not very highly correlated. The findings of this study suggest that counsellors may utilise students’ vocational interests and multiple intelligences profiles in career counselling. This study could be replicated with larger samples of students, and courses including the special courses of study from other MOE school clusters.

Psychiatric disorders are prevalent in today's world, and people with mental disorders seek help from various sources including psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors and spiritual healers. This study aims to explore how these people with mental disorders make sense of different systems of help especially when the etiology of the mental disorder may differ greatly in each healing system. This study utilised Dow's (1986) symbolic healing model to understand the help seeking experiences of people with mental disorders. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 7 clients. Sampling was purposive to capture a homogenous group. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed and a thematic analysis carried out using interpretative phenomenological analysis. It was found that Dow's symbolic model of healing had some shortcomings and was only partly able to explain the findings. It was found that use of Explanatory Models allowed better mapping of the client's mythic world. It was also found that clients not necessarily had to have an EM match with the healer as Dow postulated, as clients can take on a pragmatic attitude to healing and ignore their own EMs. The importance of knowing the clients expectations of healing and how well these expectations were met was emphasised, as it was found to be closely linked to the clients definitions of healing and the clients therapeutic experience.

In Singapore, results from a survey study conducted by the Singapore Children’s Society revealed that approximately 1 in 4 secondary school students surveyed was a victim of school bullying (Koh & Tan, 2008). Since the 1990s, empirical evidence has surfaced to support the possibility of groups maintaining and reinforcing acts of bullying (Salmivalli & Voeten, 2004). Salmivalli and her colleagues investigated bullying as a group process where most children in a typical school class have definable participant roles, such as an assistant to the bully, or a defender of the victim (Salmivalli, Lagerspetz, Bjorkqvist, Osterman, & Kaukiainen, 1996).

This present study aims to investigate the connections between attitudes, classroom norms, and students’ participant role behaviours in bullying situations. The participants were 213 secondary school students, 90 girls and 123 boys, aged 12 to17 years old. The measures are largely adopted from the study by Salmivalli and Voeten (2004), consisting of the Participant Role Questionnaire (Salmivalli et al., 1996), scales to measure attitudes towards bullying, and a norm questionnaire.

Results from this study revealed that bullying-related attitudes were associated with all participant role behaviours, while classroom norms on the anti-bullying versus pro-bullying continuum predicted participant role behaviours for all except outsider, and for all except defender of victim and outsider on the normative indifference versus normative influence continuum. Prevalence of bullying, observed and experienced, predicted most participant role behaviours except for defender of victim and outsider.

Results from this study implied that bullying does take place as a group process within the Singaporean classroom, and that both attitudes towards bullying and classroom norms contribute to students’ participant role behaviours to some extent.

Intervention efforts should be targeted at the whole class, with emphasis on influencing students’ attitudes to take a stand against bullying, and on changing classroom norms to discourage bullying behaviours within the classroom. The study findings however are limited due to its cross-sectional design, small sample size, and measures adopted from a western context. Future studies may perhaps focus on uncovering other group factors that contribute to bystander behaviours in bullying situations.

Depression and anxiety disorders rank among the top mental disorders in Singapore, and women are twice as likely to be affected (Institute of Mental Health, 2011). However, there is low help seeking behaviour from people with mental disorders (Ng et al., 2008). As such, there is a need for an alternative way to control and manage the growth of mental disorders. Previous studies have shown the practice of yoga to be helpful in reducing the depressive and anxiety symptoms (Forfylow, 2011; Meyer et al., 2012). However, there is no knowledge of how effective yoga is on the emotional states of women in the Singapore context. This study examined the effects of yoga on the emotional states of healthy adult women in Singapore. Sixty-six yoga practitioners and 99 non-yoga practitioners were studied. Their emotional states were assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) which measures emotional states specific to depression, anxiety and stress; and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) which measures general positive and negative emotional states. Yoga practice was defined to consist of four key components: Breath practice, Physical postures, Meditation, and Yoga philosophy study. The yoga practitioners were asked for their years of yoga practice as well as the number of components in their yoga practice. The yoga group showed significantly lesser negative emotional states specific to depression and anxiety and greater positive emotional states. Significant negative correlations were found between years of yoga practice and anxiety, stress and general negative emotional states. Significant negative correlation was found between the number of components in a yoga practice and stress. The present findings suggested that yoga can reduce the negative emotional states specific to depression and anxiety and bring about greater positive emotional states in women.

The current study aims to provide insight into the factors that influence the perceived stress of Singapore secondary school students. The variables of the study were secondary appraisal of situation, perceived autonomy support (from father, mother, teacher), and perceived coping efficacy. The study examined for the relationships of these variables with the perceived stress of Singapore adolescents.

A total of 400 students from the secondary one to four levels in a secondary school participated in the study. They filled out a self-report questionnaire on the perception of coping with stress using Likert scales. The questionnaire was administered in their school during the post-examination period in March 2012.

The findings suggested that higher levels of secondary appraisal, perceived autonomy support, and perceived coping efficacy contributed to lower levels of perceived stress experienced by the students. It was also found that secondary appraisal and perceived coping efficacy did not significantly mediate the relationship between perceived autonomy support and perceived stress.

Some reasons that contributed to the insignificant results could be that this study used only secondary appraisal as one of the variables of interest in this study, leaving out primary appraisal as a potential factor that could also influence the perceived stress of adolescents. Participants in this study were taken from a single school, and based on convenience sampling. Results obtained cannot represent and be generalized to the Singapore adolescent population.

Even though the results obtained in the current study showed no statistical significance, it is worth noting that the theoretical models used in this study may be utilized as a as a guide for a clinical interview. Recognizing pre-existing and current factors that influence the student‟s level of perceived stress can aid clinicians in the selection of therapeutic goals, so that clinicians can better target intervention and treatment programs aimed at modifying individual‟s responses to stress factors (for e.g., help to develop support network).

A study was conducted to explore vocational students’ perceptions of learning gains in the Singapore context. A total of 243 students participated in the study. There were 172 females and 68 males. Their age ranged from17 to 24 years old. The students filled out a questionnaire containing measures of positivity, academic achievement, and perceptions of learning in the vocational context. The measures for positivity were the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule, Satisfaction with Life scale, and Subjective Happiness Scale. The measure for perceptions of learning gains comprised 14 subscales such as creativity self-efficacy, motivation to learn, and gains from the course attended. The findings showed that positive affect, satisfaction with life and subjective happiness correlated significantly with perceptions of learning gains. Discussion included the strengths and limitations of the study, as well as how to enhance positivity and learning gains.

This dissertation examined children’s perceptions of a creative person. A total of 115 primary school children in Singapore participated in the study. They were asked to make a drawing of a creative person, to indicate the creative person’s gender and age, and then used a six-point Likert scale to rate characteristics of the creative person in the picture (IRP, 2009). Their drawings were analysed qualitatively. Their responses were subjected to quantitative analysis. From the findings, we learned that children’s experiences influence their drawing of a creative person. Eighty percent of the children’s drawings of the creative person were of the same gender and seventy percent of them of them were of the same age range (between 9-11 years old). The findings support Vygotsky’s (2004) theory of creative imagination that experience influence imagination and vice versa. The two-sample t-test showed that there was a significant difference between girls and boys in terms of their choice of gender for the picture. Children rated hard-working and imaginative highly, and technically talented moderately, as characteristics of a creative person in the picture.

A total of 102 children (age: 10-12 years) from a Singapore school participated in a study aiming to find out the relations between creative imagination and emotions after completion of tasks. The study was designed with reference to Vygotsky’s (2004) creative imagination conception and Amabile’s (1983) social componential model of creativity, and Frederickson’s (2001) broaden and build theory of positive emotions. Three tasks were given to the children including social problem solving, fantasy writing, and design tasks. Emotions specific to task changed significantly according to types of tasks. Mean values of positive emotions of boys were significantly higher than those of the girls. The participants’ writings and drawings were analysis. Themes were identified from the categories of responses. Children’s and themes of drawing of children were discussed with reference to development of creative imagination.

In the age group of 65 years and above, 4.4 percent of the resident population of Singapore are single females. In a modern and yet, patriarchal society, where marriage and motherhood are deemed as norms, single women are seen as different. It is in the interest of this study to understand what it means to be an elderly single woman and how elderly single women manage their lives.

This research is a qualitative study which employs a thematic analysis approach to explore the lives of 5 elderly single Chinese women in Singapore. Face-to-face individual interviews were conducted and transcribed. The analysis revealed four broad themes: family circumstances, being single, living life and managing life. These themes suggest that the women remained single due to conditions in the family when they were younger and that they have accepted their fate of being unmarried. Interestingly, these women are satisfied with their lives and are presently coping to lead the rest of the journey, in view of age and limited resources. Balte’s theory of Selection, Optimization and Compensation provides the theoretical framework for this study.