Date of Conferral

7-24-2024

Date of Award

July 2024

Degree

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.)

School

Psychology

Advisor

Michael Langlais

Abstract

School counselors play an integral role in helping adolescents navigate and overcome the psychological distress that they experience. This study aimed to better understand the experiences of Jamaican school counselors who provide psychological support to adolescents in high school. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s (2006) bioecological model of human development and Hans-Georg Gadamer's (1981) hermeneutic theory formed the conceptual framework for this study. Seven Jamaican secondary school counselors who provide psychological support to adolescents in high school participated in semistructured interviews via the Zoom online platform. Narrative analysis was used to code and analyze the data from the interviews. Seven themes emerged from the data: school counselors describe their role and experiences of providing psychological support to adolescents, counselors’ experiences of factors that influence and factors that discourage help-seeking behavior among adolescents, counselors’ experiences of social media and social class as deterrents to adolescents seeking psychological support, counselors experience high workload and the need for more internal support and additional human resources, counselors’ experiences working with external government psychological support services, counselors' experience of psychological impact and self-care practices, and counselors' experiences of determining the effectiveness of the psychological support they provide. The findings of this study have implications for the establishment of stronger support systems for Jamaican school counselors and the development and enforcement of policies governing the operation of school counselors.

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