COUNSELLING ON STIGMA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ACADEMIC PROGRESSION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING OF ADOLESCENT STUDENT MOTHERS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NAKURU COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Adolescent motherhood is a phenomenon of public concern to stakeholders at the national and international levels. It is considered a factor that impedes the realization of girl child formal education, which also causes strain on government resources. Adolescent mothers who are re-admitted into school system face various psychological challenges such as stigma. This study purposed to assess the relationship between counselling on stigma and academic progression, as well as psychological well-being of adolescent student mothers in public secondary schools in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study adopted two theories, self-efficacy and theory of planned behaviour. It was guided by correlation research design. The target population was 1,788 adolescent student mothers in Nakuru County, from which a sample of 221 respondents was selected through purposive sampling method. Teacher counsellors in the respective schools also formed part of the study sample. Reliability of the test instruments was determined by test- retest method where a Cronbach co-efficient alpha of 0.82 was established. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically. Data analysis was aided by SPSS (Version 26). Pearson correlation was used to test the relationship between stigma counseling and academic progression and psychological wellbeing on the other hand. Findings from the study indicated stigma counselling influenced the academic progression of adolescent student mothers positively (r = .936). R squared was found to be 0.876, indicating that 87.6% of the variance in academic progression and psychological wellbeing of adolescent student mothers in public secondary schools could be explained by the stigma counselling of adolescent student mothers. The study recommends the need to enhance counselling interventions in building resilience on personal responsibility to enable adolescent mothers fulfill both academic and motherhood roles.