This study was composed of two parts. The first part of this study was to determine what problems there are in the operations of youth counseling centers. The second part was to outline a plan that will improve the operational efficiency of these yout...
This study was composed of two parts. The first part of this study was to determine what problems there are in the operations of youth counseling centers. The second part was to outline a plan that will improve the operational efficiency of these youth counseling centers. This study was based on the opinions of middle and high school students who used the counseling centers. It examined their thoughts about normal problems faced in life, their mental state, their use of counseling centers, and their ideas for improvements to the counseling centers. In this study one hundred and sixty-five (165) students were surveyed. They were students who had participated in the counseling program of the youth counseling centers in In-cheon. Eighty-three (83) of the participants were male and eighty-two (82) were female. There were forty-one (41) middle school students, seventy-five (75) academic high school students, and forty-nine (49) technical high school students. In order to quantify the data collected, the ANOVA Verification program with SPSS Win12.0 software was used to verify the frequency and percentage of each question and the difference between each group. First, the youth counseling centers need to become an autonomous entity. They need to be allowed the freedom to create and maintain different counseling programs to suit the needs of the community in which they are located. The counseling centers also need to create long term goals taking into consideration the conditions in their unique community. Second, currently there is a lack of counseling facilities andthese facilities are staffed by unqualified counselors. Instead of expecting ideal effects from counseling according to counseling theory, the present situation needs to be changed. More counseling facilities should be built. These facilities should select, train, and place more qualified counselors. With these changes it can be expected that the quality of counseling will improve and the effects of counseling will be greater. Third, a consistent method of evaluation needs to be developed. Regularly evaluating the operation of the youth counseling centers will increase the efficiency of the counseling centers operations. The centers should be evaluated in several different aspects. These are recruitment of volunteer workers, training of their workers, the management of the centers, the contributions of the centers to their communities, and the benefits the members of the community receive. Fourth, students who had problems with their friends, sex, and money showed a high rate of using the youth counseling centers. The frequency of these problems is low because their school grades and their future career are the two biggest problems teenagers face. However, students who do have problems with friends, sex, and money used and received positive results from the youth counseling centers. Actually, there were two groups of students who used the youth counseling centers. The first group showed a high level of satisfaction with their family and home life. The other group had a lower level of satisfaction with their family and home life. The first group, with a high level of satisfaction, needed to be counseled about studies, grades, and what career to choose after graduating from high school. The other group needed to be counseled about friends, the opposite sex, trouble with their parents, etc. Especially consistent problems the students had were shown to be worried about school courses, grades, and their future careers. These concerns also gave them problems related to their friends. Students who had trouble with their parents and financial difficulties wanted to solve their problems needed counseling about potential capacities and their course of action. Therefore, counselors need to have different counseling plans based on the student’s family financial level and their relationship with their parents and friends.