The effectiveness of university counselling for improving academic outcomes and well-being

ABSTRACT

The work discusses the effectiveness of the counselling treatment to enhance student academic success. The participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (66 students who had completed counselling treatment) or a wait-list comparison group (44 students). The Adult Self Report (ASR) by Achenbach and Rescorla [2003. Manual for the ASEBA adult forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families, University of Vermont] and the Outcome Questionnaire 45 (OQ-45) by Lambert and Hill [1994. Assessing psychotherapy outcomes and processes. In A. E. Bergin & S. L. Garfield (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (pp. 72–113). New York: John Wiley] were applied before and after the counselling sessions. Data show statistically significant decrease in the ASR clinical scales for both internalising and externalising problems after counselling as well as in the OQ-45 scores for distress symptoms and relationship difficulties. Compared with the control group, the students who received counselling exhibited a significant recovery regarding their progress with their studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic outcomes
• effectiveness
• university counselling
• ASR
• OQ-45
• well-being

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Valeria Biasi is an associate professor of psychology at Roma Tre University. She is the clinical manager of counselling services for students at Roma Tre University.

Nazarena Patrizi obtained her Ph.D. in pedagogy from Roma Tre University. She is a temporary research fellow at Roma Tre University.

Mauro Mosca is a clinical psychologist who is involved in counselling services for students at Roma Tre University.

Conny De Vincenzo is a clinical psychologist and a temporary research fellow at Roma Tre University.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Department of Education of Roma Tre University (Project title: Psychological conflicts, stress levels and risk factors for academic performance in university students, 2015).