GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the counselling needs of adolescents with emotional disorders in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. A sample of 89 emotionally disordered adolescents was drawn through a purposive sampling method in public secondary schools in the area used for the study. Two instruments, titled "Adolescent Needs Assessment Questionnaire" (ANAQ) and "Adolescent Disorders Questionnaire" (ADQ), were used for data collection. Face and content validities of the instruments were ensured by experts. Test-retest method was used to establish the reliability of the instrument, and the reliability coefficient of (ANAQ) was 0.81 and (ADQ) was 0.79, respectively. The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions, while independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 alpha level of significance. It is found that female adolescents are more emotionally disordered and also need counselling than their male counterparts. Male and female adolescents do not differ significantly in the counselling needs of adolescents with different emotional disorders, including depression, anxiety, trauma, and stress. Based on the findings, conclusions and recommendations were made.

KEYWORDS: Counselling needs, emotional disorders and counselling