A mixed method study of behavioral disturbance, family-related factors, and counseling intervention among Filipino adolescents

• Main Author: Stephen, Kofi Jantuah
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2009
• Subjects: Teenagers > Philippines; Counseling; Behavior disorders in children; Counseling Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/262; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_doctoral/article/1261/viewcontent/CDTG004610_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The mixed exploratory sequential method was employed to explore the behavioral disturbance, family-related factors, and counseling intervention among Filipino adolescents. Ten Filipinos between ages 14 to 18 years, being on referral and/or having high scores in the internalizing and externalizing behaviors on Achenbachs Youth Self- Report (YSR) were chosen to participate in the study. Phase I, which was a qualitative approach, employed a semi-structured in-depth interview method, which was content analyzed, categorized, and thematized. Four out of the ten participants who were willing to pursue Phase II of the study were then selected. The four participants went through direct eight sessions of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) counseling intervention program. Findings indicate that rule breaking, aggressive, and anxious/depressed behaviors were among the main behavioral disturbances of the Filipino adolescents. Lack of activities together, lack of parental care, and economic demands on the part of the parents were also among the major family-related factors contributing to these behavioral disturbances. The counseling intervention was overall helpful to most of the participants in lowering their behavioral disturbance and improving their self-regulatory efficacy however, the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test showed that there was a significant difference between both the anxious/depressed and aggressive behaviors of the participants who went through the counseling intervention and those who did not. The findings of the study have implications for the development of counseling theory and the delivery of counseling services.