PEER ME NOT The Perceptions and Engagement of UP Manila Students in Peer Counseling Programs

Abstract

Peer counseling is rapidly becoming a fixture of school counseling programs for its apparent benefits to the overall growth and development of students, allowing them a stable support system that would address and cater to their needs and concerns. U.P Manila has also welcomed the peer counseling movement and has witnessed the establishment of peer counseling programs that aims to ensure the well-being of U.P Manila students as highly competent and capable Iskolars ng Bayan. Yet, with the rise of increasingly alarming posts about depression, anxiety, and inability to cope with overwhelming stress, only a small portion of the student population, and maybe even lesser, are availing of peer counseling services. Why so? In order to determine the factors affecting students’ engagement in peer counseling programs, students’ perception of the program, as well as the facilitating and constraining factors, were evaluated in terms of its plausible correlation and effect on the students’ engagement and likelihood to avail of peer counseling services. Hence, it is the general objective of the study to determine the perception of UP Manila students towards peer counseling and deduce how it affects their engagement in peer counseling programs. A mixed methods sequential explanatory design was utilized in order to achieve the specific objectives of the study. The following variables were measured and analyzed: (1) U.P Manila students’ Perception of Peer Counseling, (2) Student Peer Engagement, (3) Facilitating Factors, and (4) Constraining Factors which was then correlated to Engagement to Peer Counseling Programs. It was revealed that U.P Manila students’ perception of peer counseling were significantly correlated and directly proportional to their engagement to these programs. Most of the students gave a moderate rating to the existing peer counseling programs and issues about academics, health, and career emerged as the top 3 concerns of the U.P Manila student body.