Abstract

Abstract Psychology and school counseling activities provides services based on the needs of students and to solve the problems of education of students in the school context and psychological perspectives. However, evidence suggests that numerous challenges for quality, performance and effectiveness of this activity is fueled. Hence, the present research was conducted in schools with the aim of identifying the damaging factors of counseling activities. The study was conducted using the combinational method. The research population included principals, consultants, teachers and students working and studying in the educational system of West Azerbaijan Province during the 2012/2013 educational year. The sample size was 416 respondents comprising of 46 individuals in the qualitative section who were selected based on comments saturation and 370 individuals in the quantitative section selected by use of stratified sampling method. Data were collected by use of author made interview schedules and questionnaire then analyzed using chi-square, regression, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Z Test. The findings indicated a significant difference between the existing status and the desired status of counseling activities in schools. The damaging factors of counseling activities and their level of effect were identified. Based on the identified levels of effects, the interpersonal factors showed the highest vulnerability towards counseling activities. Therefore, Several factors affect the quality of school counseling activities that a cause and effect between each other, therefore, any attempt to improve the quality of school counseling activities requires a systematic and coordinated efforts with a deep understanding of the barriers and challenges; that in this study, Damaging challenges in school counseling activities were identified and classified within three areas of Intrapersonal factors, Meta-personal factors and Interpersonal factors.