Master of Arts (Counselling & Guidance)

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.

With the introduction of the protection from harassment legislation in Singapore, cyber bullying has been placed on national agenda in the Singapore society (Ministry of Law, 2013). In existing research literature, it has been established that cyber bullying can lead to damaging consequences on mental health during adolescence. This present study is undertaken to understand adolescents’ help seeking responses towards cyber bullying in relation to their mental health. Data was gathered from 551 students aged 9 to 17 years old who were enrolled in 14 schools in Singapore. From these adolescents, 175 (31.8%) reported having been cyber victimised, of which 94 (53.7%) were males and 81 (46.3%) were females.

As depressive symptoms and social anxiety are cited as the most widely known mental health sequelae, this study aims to examine adolescents’ help seeking behaviour and responses to cyber bullying in relation to depressive symptoms and anxiety. Results indicate that sources of help seeking are negatively correlated with depressive symptoms and social anxiety among adolescents. It was also found that there was no statistical difference in depressive symptoms and social anxiety among adolescent cyber victims who sought help as compared to those who did not do so. Findings also show that cyber victims who trivialized the bullying or responded by retaliating will likely experience higher depressive symptoms. However, this was not the same for social anxiety. Furthermore, for cyber victims who seek peer support, they tended to experience higher depressive symptoms and social anxiety. These findings suggest that parents, educators and counsellors need to encourage effective help seeking methods and responses to buffer negative mental health effects among adolescents. Overall, these results signify that adolescent cyber victimisation, help seeking behaviour and responses deserve future empirical attention.

The study examined Bangladeshi foreign workers’ perspectives of counselling. Using qualitative methods, eight randomly sampled participants answered twenty-one open-ended questions in semi-structured interviews designed to highlight the perspective of counselling from the participants. These questions were designed to understand the challenges faced by respondents while working in Singapore. It also gauged their opinions on counselling. From the interviews, twenty-two unique themes were identified. The findings showed that Bangladeshi foreign workers had positive opinions of counselling and reported that it could be potentially useful. Participants were initially not familiar with counselling or where to receive assistance, but reported being more open to this after receiving an explanation through the interviews. The challenges expressed by participants were also found to be consistent with existing literature. Information on foreign workers’ coping methods was lacking in current literature. This study also reduced this gap by asking participants how they cope with the challenges they encounter. Recommendations were made towards future research that looks at the effectiveness of counselling in Bangladeshi foreign workers. At the same time, it could also be taken as a means of improving existing support channels for foreign workers in Singapore.

The study aims to identify the benefits of nature on well-being through conducting a secondary analysis of primary qualitative datasets. This study takes its cue from an ongoing primary study that began in 2014 by Vilma D’Rozario and Susanna Ho, titled “Understanding educational and well-being implications of learning outside the classroom, specifically in wild habitats”. The primary study was conducted by having face-to-face interviews with eight experienced master nature educators (MNEs), who are recognised and respected leaders and activists within the nature community. The primary study had 14 open-ended questions designed to prompt the MNEs to share their views and insights about their nature education work, educational methods, and the benefits of learning outdoors. The primary dataset was transcribed. A secondary analysis was conducted by re-examining all eight transcripts and qualitatively analysing them to identify common themes that emerged about the benefits of nature on well-being. From the secondary analysis, 10 themes emerged. They were classified into three main categories, namely: (a) Nature gave meaning to life; (b) Nature promoted spiritual well-being; and (c) Restorative effect of nature. The restorative effect of nature, which mainly refers to the physical benefits of nature, its effect on the reduction of mental fatigue and its rejuvenating effects, are consistent with the literature review. Results support the idea that nature promotes spiritual well-being, which is not as well-studied. Responses from the MNEs also revealed that working in nature has given them a sense of purpose and a meaning in life, which keeps them doing the things they do.

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.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics and practice of master nature educators in Singapore. Eight master nature educators were recruited using a peer nominated snowball-sampling method. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews where participants responded to 14 open-ended questions. Sixteen themes emerged from the interviews and these themes were organized into five categories: (a) Developmental influences (positive childhood experiences in nature; significant others; acquired experiences); (b) Personal qualities (passion for nature; dedicated/persevering; knowledgeable; enjoyed interacting with others); (c) Philosophy/ Worldview (personal and spiritual connection with nature; eco-centric stance); (d) Approach to practice (spontaneous/ non-structured; facilitative/learner-centered; planting seeds); and (e) Competencies (connecting with nature learners; connecting nature learners with nature; adapting to nature learners’ needs; managing challenging nature learners creatively). Findings might inform training needs for current and future nature educators in Singapore. Suggestions for further research included measures for identifying the efficacy of master nature educators’ practice and the impact of nature education.

Using qualitative methods, this study examined the personal characteristics, developmental influences, and therapy practices of five peer nominated psychotherapists practising with youth offenders, in particular the incarcerated youth population in Singapore. The study was carried out by conducting face-to-face interviews with the identified participants, of which they had to respond to 18 open-ended questions designed to highlight the personal characteristics and therapy practices of Singaporean therapists working with incarcerated youth. Common characteristics among these therapists were identified primarily through thematic analysis. Fourteen themes were organized into three categories: (a) Developmental influences (accumulated experiences; commitment to professional and personal development; humility; self-awareness and self-reflexivity); (b) Personal characteristics (compassion and calling; therapist psychological maturity, emotional well-being and self-care; belief in client’s ability to change; congruence); and (c) Approach to practice (primacy of therapeutic alliance; being intentional in the counselling process; use of self in therapy; strengths-focused/empowerment approach; use of complex and multiple criteria in judging therapy outcomes; being open and non-judgmental). The practical implications of the findings might inform future decisions regarding training and recruitment of staff working with incarcerated youth.

This qualitative research study was conducted to explore the personal characteristics and therapy practices of therapists working within hospital settings in Singapore. Seven therapists were selected using a combination of convenience and snowball sampling techniques. The study was carried out by conducting audiotaped face-to-face interviews for sixty to ninety minutes, of which the respondents had to respond to 18 open-ended questions designed to highlight the personal characteristics and therapy practices of Singaporean master therapists. Thematic analysis was employed to identify common characteristics among these therapists. Twenty four themes were organized into five categories: (a) Personal Characteristics (Empathic, Respectful, Flexible, Being open and non-judgmental, Genuineness, Being present); (b) Developmental influences (Experience, Self-awareness, and Humility); (c) Approach to practice (Primacy of Therapeutic alliance, Combination of art and science, Use of measurement tools in judging the therapy effectiveness, Providing a safe environment, Knowledge of multicultural context, Involvement of multidisciplinary team, Empowerment / strengths-focused); (d) Personal growth (Importance of therapist self-care, Transformation of the self, Importance of self-reflexivity); (e) Ongoing professional growth (Professional development practices, Good system of supervision, Involvement in research and publication, Challenges to professional development in Singapore, Having a good mentor).

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.

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.

This study seeks to compare Third Culture Kids (TCKs) and non-TCKs who had studied in Asia on their cultural adaptability and sense of belonging. It was hypothesized that TCKs would be more culturally adaptable and have a lower sense of belonging compared to non-TCKs. Cultural adaptation and sense of belonging were also hypothesized to be inversely correlated. Cultural adaptation was measured using the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) and sense of belonging was measured via the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM). Participants were categorized into TCKs and non-TCKs based on their responses on the Brief Demographics Form. There were 246 participants in this study with 124 TCKs and 122 non-TCKs. Results obtained provided evidence that TCKs are more culturally adaptable than non-TCKs, specifically on knowledge, awareness, motivation, and behavior when interacting with other cultures. TCKs had a lower emotional attachment to their ethnic identity than non-TCKs, though they did not differ in their knowledge and understanding of their ethnic group. For non-TCKs, there were small positive correlations between cultural adaptation and sense of belonging, between cultural adaptation and ethnic identity search’, and between the cognitive aspect of cultural intelligence and sense of belonging. For TCKs, there was an inverse correlation between the motivational aspect of cultural adaptation with sense of belonging and affirmation, belonging, and commitment. The metacognitive aspect of cultural adaptation was also positively related to ethnic identity search for all participants. TCKs and non-TCKs were found to relate to cultural adaptation and their sense of belonging differently. As the number of TCKs will increase with globalization, counselors can consider helping TCKs reinforce their sense of belonging and encourage TCKs to use their more culturally adaptable selves to their advantage and gain a sense of purpose from their multi-ethnicity by working with diverse population.

The research study was driven by two aspects of needs. The general sentiment of talent retention in the corporate landscape and an exploratory study on the key corporate factors and their values from the perspective of mid-career professionals that drew them to stay with a company.

This study introduced today’s corporate human resource main challenge in a highly mobile and competitive society like Singapore. The cost of investing into talent retention became a viable investment and strategy to keep trained, experienced and highly productive staff against a competitive market. The research study, therefore, sought to identify the corporate factors that drew talents and, more importantly, retained them in the organization in a highly competitive and mobile society in Singapore. Corporate factors formed the personality thrust of a company and was defined by a set of corporate values that provided a framework in which a company operated and engaged its staff.

The study took an interest in exploring the key considerations of mid-career professionals when assessing the type of corporate environment. Mid-career professionals, generally, would have 10-15 years or more of professional experience. It attempted to explore the expectations of mid-career professionals who could be experiencing career transition, perhaps as a result of company restructuring or embarking on a new career. Personal lives and development of individuals might have changed, and therefore, career expectations changed with it. Hence, it was important to look at one’s stage of life and finding a fit with the corporate environment, where they could bring their career to the next level.

The purpose of this study sought to identify the corporate factors and their carrying values that mid-career professionals were most affected by and were intrinsically drawn to. This carried the basic assumption that at this mid-career stage these people were fully aware of their skillsets and wanted to continue to work, grow and advance in an organization that best suit their competence, career development and personal needs. This study was not an examination of career goals, developmental areas, motivation, personality or interests of any individuals.

In this study, the sample of thirty was drawn from professionals in their mid-career from various industries in mid-senior roles and mostly in their thirties and forties. Six common corporate factors were identified and each corporate factor carried certain values and these were scored by participants. All scores are calculated and averaged by means methodology.

The major findings were: compensation, job compatibility and relationship with peers and manager came up tops in the scores. From a career counselling perspective, the findings indicated which corporate values were important to the individuals and provided a motivation for deepening performance and increasing the overall value of the organization. They provided some clarity on priorities in seeking out a corporate environment that best suited a person’s career needs, which could be influenced by family and personal dynamics.

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.

Therapist self-disclosure has been found to have both positive and negative effects towards the therapy session which could depend on the nature of the disclosure. This study sought to examine the differential effects of therapist disclosures between resolved and unresolved countertransference issues on perceptions of therapists and therapy session. Using an analogue method, participants (N = 63) were randomly assigned to read one of the two scripts in which a therapist disclosed personal issues that were relatively resolved or unresolved. The proposed hypothesis stated that therapist disclosure of issues that were more resolved would cause the therapist to be rated as instilling greater hope, perceived as more professional and expert besides having stronger therapeutic alliance than therapist disclosure of less resolved issues. However, the results showed no significant differences for the dependent measures between the two conditions of types of disclosure. Instead, racial group of participants showed significant difference to the expertness of the therapist and instillation of hope. Implications of the results will be discussed in terms of how self-disclosure could be an essential tool in therapy.

In a study, 112 adults participated aiming to find out the relationships between creativity self-efficacy, emotions, and cultural orientation behavior. The participants’ age ranged between 18 and 68 years old. They comprised 75 (67%) females and 37(33 %) males. Sixty-three (56.3%) were professionals, 29 (25.9%) of them were non-professionals, 20 (17.8%) of them were students, retirees, or homemakers. Near half of them were singles, 56 (50%) of them married and three (2.7%) of them were divorcees. Measures of the study included the creativity self-efficacy scale, the positive affect and negative affect scale, satisfaction with life scale, subjective happiness scale, and cultural orientation scale. Horizontal cultural orientations and positivity (mood, and happiness) correlated positively and significantly with creativity self-efficacy (for divergent, convergent, and persistent processes). Vertical individualism correlated positively with creativity self-efficacy for convergent and divergent processes, vertical collectivism correlated positively with creativity self-efficacy for persistence. Strengths, limitations and implications of the study were presented.

This study intended to find out if the development of social skills in youth, under classroom environment, can improve their management of aggressive behaviour, e.g. anger. Research, largely with individual or small group that had some form of deficiency, had shown that interventions like cognitive behavioural therapy, social skills and the combination of these interventions were effective in bringing about improvement in aggressive behaviours.

The participants for this study included 176 students aged between 13 to 16 years old. They were from the Normal (Academic) stream of three mainstream secondary schools. The students completed the State-Trait Anger Scale (STAS) questionnaire which consisted of two sections of 15 questions each. In addition, focused group discussions were conducted with selected students to glean a deeper understanding to the statistical results.

The quantitative statistical results revealed that there was significant outcome between the interventions on anger management with medium effect size. The students in the school-based CCE group yielded a more positive outcome than the students in the social skills group. However, the qualitative study presented the fact that the students’ improvements were attributed mostly by the interactions of the individual with the peers and the adults. The classroom environment was also an important factor that influenced the change. Most importantly, the mindset of the students was a key personal factor that had a critical effect on the individual’s ability to better manage their emotion, in this case anger.

This study definitely provided a lead to possible future research study to better understand the effect of social skill, under a classroom environment, in the management of anger in youth. Future study could endeavour to explore the type of classroom environment, the different forms of students’ engagement and the outcome when a more structured autonomy for experiential learning is provided.

The present study examined the effects of a positive psychology intervention, which focused on the identification and application of character strengths, to improve academically at-risk adolescents’ self-esteem, foster the use of positive coping strategies and reduce the use of negative coping strategies. The sample population consisted of 60 academically at-risk students from three Secondary Two classes. The study used a split-plot experimental research design, which involved randomly splitting students within each class into two groups, one being the experimental group and the other being the placebo-control group. All students randomly assigned in the experimental group participated in the strengths-based activities while the students in the placebo-control group participated in the self-discovery activities for about six weeks. The students’ teachers, who underwent a workshop to learn how to conduct the activities, facilitated the activities of each group. Both the experimental group and placebo-control group did not report a significant change in their self-esteem before and after participating in their respective activities. Starting off with pre-intervention mean scores that did not differ significantly for the experimental and placebo-control group, the posttest mean score for negative coping of the former group was found to be significantly lower than that of the latter; however, the difference between the posttest mean scores for positive coping of both groups was not statistically significant. Overall, the results of this study revealed that strengths-based intervention activities are more effective in reducing the students’ use of negative coping strategies, but less so in terms of increasing positive coping strategies or self-esteem of academically at-risk students. The study opens doors for more research on the use of strengths- based intervention in the Asian education context.

Depression has been projected to be the second leading cause of disability affecting both genders and all ages by 2020. On the other hand, gratitude has been shown to initiate upward spirals towards greater emotional well-being and life satisfaction. The present study examines the effects of a „3 good things‟ gratitude intervention on the positive and negative affect, depressive symptoms and satisfaction with life in 128 secondary school students. Four classes were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control condition. The weekly interventions were carried out over six weeks. The self-report results at the immediate post intervention showed that the gratitude intervention works better with the older participants with regards to negative affect compared to the control condition. It is also shown to have greater impact on females in satisfaction with life. Apart from these interactions, the study did not yield significant main effects. The study therefore partially supports two of the hypotheses. At pre intervention, participants‟ baseline scores were relatively high. The implications are discussed. Strengths and limitations are also discussed. The study opens doors for more research on the promising gratitude intervention in the Asian Singapore context.

Cultivating kindness and positive social relationships are areas that have received little attention in the literature pertaining to academically at-risk youths. This study examines the effectiveness of a gratitude-based positive psychology intervention (PPI) on academically at-risk students’ gratitude, positive feelings (i.e., care) for others and relationships with significant others—parents, peers, classmates and teachers. In the study, 43 students attending a specialized secondary school were randomly assigned to either the experimental group or placebo-control group. The students in the experimental group participated in gratitude-based PPI, which consisted of two 30-minute sessions per week for eight weeks. The gratitude-based PPI was not able to generate significant improvements in students’ trait gratitude; however, it was able to generate significant changes in the students’ state gratitude. In particular, the experimental group reported a decline in negative affective reactions towards receiving assistance or favours, while the placebo-control group did not report a statistically significant change in relation to this aspect of state gratitude. For both groups, the change in positive affective reaction to receiving assistance or favours did not reach statistical significance. The gratitude-based PPI was found to produce promising, yet non-significant results, in relation to promoting social relationships and caring for others. The students in the experimental group who experienced the gratitude-based PPI reported a fair improvement in relatedness with peers; the students forming the placebo-control group who participated in their designated activities reported a decline in relationship with the same social partner. The effect sizes of the gratitude-based PPI and placebo-control activities were both positive in relation to the students’ relatedness with parents and teachers, but the effect size of the PPI was stronger in fostering relatedness with parents. The gratitude-based PPI produced a positive yet modest effect size in terms of enhancing caring for others and a negligible effect size in terms of reducing negative feelings towards others. Overall, this study provided preliminary empirical evidence that a gratitude-based PPI can generate positive, albeit, weak effects that can potentially seed positive social bonds and interactions for student at-risk of continued poor school outcomes in an Asian setting.

Exercise, as a form of physical activity, is essential to maintaining good physical health and mental well-being for people of all ages. It is particularly beneficial to older adults and can help arrest their physical decline, prevent certain types of disease, and improve their quality of life significantly. Despite the overwhelming evidence attesting to the health benefits that result from regular exercise, more than 50% of Singapore residents between 16 and 24 years of age are physically inactive. Physical fitness trainers play a critical role in engaging older adults to exercise. While this is generally acknowledged, there is little research on this group of professionals, especially in terms of the challenges they face and the interventions they adopt to overcome these challenges. What kinds of support do they provide to engage and motivate older adults to exercise? What are the perceived barriers to exercise that older adults face? The present study aims to address these questions, thereby filling a gap in the existing literature. Through qualitative research, with in-depth face-to-face interviews focusing on 23 open-ended questions, the study seeks to examine the perception, personal attributes and practices of ten student fitness trainers in engaging older adults to exercise. The participants are being prepared for the industry, and their perspectives are important to understanding the barriers that prevent older adults from adopting a physically active lifestyle and the interventions that can be applied effectively to overcome these challenges. Despite the limitations of the study, the findings might contribute to a better understanding of the support required to motivate behaviour change and sustain exercise adherence among older adults, and with further research, also to support Singapore’s effort in promoting healthy and successful ageing.