Effectiveness of Programmes and Strategies Put in Place to Enhance Guidance and Counseling Services among Early Motherhood Students in Selected Universities in Western Kenya

Abstract

Early child bearing or pregnancy and delivery during adolescence and early adulthood can have far reaching effects on Psycho-social well-being of young student's mothers.   In Kenya, there are several students who join motherhood while still pursuing their academic journey at the Universities. Universities offer guidance and counseling services as an essential pillar in student support services. Young students' mothers require counseling to support their psycho-social wellbeing. There is a shortage of empirical data on guidance and counseling interventions on anxiety and self-esteem of early mother's university students. The overall objective of this study is to determine Effectiveness of programmes and strategies put in place to enhance guidance and counseling services among early motherhood students in selected universities in western Kenya. The study was guided by the Common Factors Theory by Grencavage and Norcross (1990), and the Self- Determination Theory by Ryan and Deci (2000).  Data was collected from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) and Kibabii University (KIBU). The Study used qualitative descriptive research design. The researcher used census to sample 30 young mothers and all the 6 university counselors in the two universities. Test-retest method was used to determine the reliability of the research instruments. Methods of data collection were questionnaires as well as Beck anxiety inventory and Rosenberg self-esteem inventory which were used to assess anxiety and self-esteem levels of the respondents. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 25. Findings revealed that the counseling programs put in place are not adequate to curb the challenges faced by early motherhood students in the universities.  The results provided significant insight on psycho-social well-being of early motherhood students in the selected universities.