The Role of Family Counseling Centers in Reducing Students' Problems

M. Mokhatab

This research was undertaken to study the role of family counseling centers in reducing students’ problems in Tehran. The population of this non-experimental survey comprised all students who were referred to family counseling centers alongside their families in 2012-2013 academic year. Simple random sampling was used and 401 students together with their parents were selected. The instrumentation included students’ counseling form and parents’ questionnaire. Cronbach's Alpha was used as the estimate of reliability of the tests and the obtained coefficients were acceptable. In addition, content validity was gained for the instruments. In order to analyze the data, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, and mean) and inferential statistics (binomial test, ANOVA, Tukey test, and chi-square) were utilized. The findings of the study indicated that in students’ opinion, educational and learning problems were the most serious ones and in parents’ view emotional and psychological problems were the most important ones. In addition, based on parents’ view, there was no significant difference between the problems of female and male students. In general, family counseling centers and counselors played a significant role in reducing the students’ problems.

Key words: students’ problems, activities of counselors and family counseling centers