Counselling services received in schools and their relationship with study habits and interpersonal relationships of learners from divorced parents in Livingstone district, Zambia.

The study sought to establish the relationship counselling services and study habits and interpersonal relationships of learners from homes of divorced parents in Livingstone District Zambia. The objectives of the study were to: identify the types of counselling services received by learners who come from homes with divorced parents they receive in schools, determine the relationship between the counselling services received in schools by learners and their study habits, and determine the relationship between the counselling services received in schools by learners and their interpersonal relationships. The study adopted a
correlational study design. The population of the study was 276 pupils with their guidance and counselling teachers. The sample size 80 comprised of 72 learners and 8 guidance and counselling teachers from the 4 schools selected in Livingstone. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data and a semi-structured interview guide was used to collect qualitative data. Data was analysed using quantitative and qualitative tools. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and MS Excel were used to analyse quantitative data Pearson’s Chi-square was used to understand the relationship between the independent variable (counselling services received) and dependent variables (study habits and interpersonal relationships.). Qualitative data from school counsellors was analysed by using thematic analysis: Familiarization, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing the themes, defining and naming the themes and finally writing the report. Findings showed that there was a relation between counselling services and study habits and interpersonal relationships of learners coming from homes of divorced parents. In addition, it revealed that in all the four schools sampled, only one guidance and counselling teacher was trained, it therefore recommended that guidance and counselling teachers should be deployed in public secondary schools with the sole responsibility of providing guidance and counselling services to all learners inclusive of the learners coming from homes of divorced
homes.