School Counselling Service as a Source of Support for Adolescents in Coping With Developmental Tasks and Challenges in Growing up

Špela Barle

Summary:  In this paper, we focus on the school counsellors’ support to adolescents in coping with developmental tasks and challenges in growing up. In the theoretical part, we show that adolescents in the process of growing up face various developmental tasks and challenges. They are mainly supported by people in their immediate living environment (family, friends), but also by the school counselling service. In the empirical part, we find out how often adolescents turn to school counsellors for support, with which topics, and how satisfied they are with that support. The results of the research show that adolescents rarely turn to school counsellors for support. If so, this is mostly related to school. Adolescents are generally satisfied with the support received from school counsellors. We find out that young people are less likely to recognize school counsellors as a possible source of support in dealing with developmental tasks and challenges in growing up. Therefore, it would be sensible to strengthen the development and prevention activities of school counsellors and work in individual departments, and thus ensure greater visibility of school counsellors as an important source of support for adolescents growing up.