Relationship among Students’ Personality, Gender, and Attitude towards Counseling Service and Utilization of School Guidance and Counseling Services

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship among students’ personality dimensions, gender, attitude towards counseling services, and utilization of school counseling services. A mixed research approach with an emphasis on quantitative methods was employed, and a total of 368 participants were selected using multi-stage cluster sampling. The instruments adopted from the literature were piloted, and their reliability was processed through Cronbach's alpha. However, the items measuring the neuroticism dimension appeared to have unacceptable reliability, so the investigation was limited to four of the Big Five personality dimensions. The results revealed that, except for agreeableness, a significant positive relationship was found among the different personality types and attitudes towards the utilization of school guidance and counseling services. Multiple linear regression revealed that the effect of all students’ personality dimensions on their attitude was statistically significant (F(4, 363) = 7.538, p < 0.05). The R² indicated that only 7.7 percent of the variance in attitude could be predicted by extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness dimensions. Results of the logistic regression revealed that students'´ attitudes and gender were significant predictors of the utilization of school counseling services. Moreover, gender was found to be a moderator of the relationships among personality, attitude, and utilization of school guidance and counseling services. In conclusion, personality, gender, and attitude towards school counseling are related to students' individual attributes and behaviors. Thus, the researcher recommends that schools should work on developing a positive attitude among students towards counseling.