Psychology

There are four models of helping which are the compensatory model, the moral model, enlightenment model and the enlightenment model. These are use by counselors or helpers in an attempt to change the behaviors or tendencies of their clients. This paper intends to look at the compensatory model which, in my view, is the most appropriate for adolescents and students who exhibit deviant or delinquent behavior while in college and even outside college.

Adolescents go through a lot as they get to the transition from children to adults. They go through many emotions which sometimes if left unaddressed lead to many undesirable behaviors. It is at this stage that they value relationships with their peers more than they do those of their parents or guardians. Problems of dropping out of school, substance abuse, actual and attempted suicide and other forms of delinquency are common with persons at this stage of life.(Palaniappan.K.A)As a helper I find a great need in working towards reduction andor complete eradication of these vices because such bad behaviors would only lead to the loss of a generation or generations to death or  bad behavior.

My client is a group of University students who are distressed and are not happy with their stay at the University. My relationship with them is professional where my role here is in counseling them. A quarter of the students are foreigners who claim to be lonely in school. After some discussion it is clear that they have a problem with their friends and their families. I would like to find solutions for these students so that in the end they will be able to cope very well with school or college life.
Some of the problems that students face and need intervention are problems to do with relationships, substance and drug abuse, tendencies towards suicide and potential to harm others (Sharkin, etal. 2003).

In my view the compensatory approach or model is the most ideal for this scenario because this approach proposes that the individual or in my case the client is not responsible for whatever he is going through but that only he can solve the problem. This approach acknowledges that the student is usually responding to the lack of resources that he is entitled to and as such results to something that is ugly. An example is the lack of acceptance from peers or the poor parental techniques applied in bringing them up. The factors contributing to delinquent behavior are for instance peer pressure where if the students are not accepted by their peers they feel lonely and start exhibiting some of those undesirable tendencies. This can be explained by the fact that the relationship between these young adults and their parents is not usually very close at this point of life and that their relationships with their peers become more valuable. Rejection by their peers contributes to the loneliness of these students and the eventual vices follow. I would handle this problem by way of involving peer counselors who would give support to students who feel rejected so that they become like a shoulder to cry on and so that they can lend their ears to the distressed student.

Research has also shown that the type of upbringing is also a major factor in determining how an individual or how students behave. Children brought up in very strict family settings have been found to have poor self esteem, are dependent on others and are not outgoing or proactive though they are usually disciplined. On the other hand children from permissive settings tend to be very outgoing, are independent, have a high self esteem but can be much undisciplined. After a session with my clients, I should be at a position to tell whether the problem lies in the relationship with their families or their peers. An understanding of the background of these students would help a counselor like me to come up with the best interventions for the problems faced by these students.

In the event that the problem emanates from the family relationships, then I would recommend having a time allocated for me and the respective families so that I enlighten them about the state of affairs of the students because improvement of the students would be made easier with their intervention. If the family commits itself to be involved in the recovery of the student, then the healing will take a short time. Here I would encourage the family members to be warm to the student and work on a good relationship with them.

On the other hand if the students problems have to do with peer influence the technique I would use is coming up with a team of students that would take the role of peer counselors. These counselors will act as a support group that students can always turn to when they feel lonely. They will be there to listen to other students and help to fight the feeling of loneliness. The support group should be an avenue that the students identify themselves with and feel very comfortable to be around. According to Palaniapan A.K as cited in
(McCombs, Forehand  Smith, 1988 Dekovic  Meeus, 1997 Demo, Small  Savin-Williams, 1987), students and adolescents who have many close friends have proved to be positive and able to handle stress.

This model is best for students and adolescents who adapt maladaptive behavior due to the lack of some resources, which may not be necessarily in form of materials or wealth but also matters like love and acceptance. The problems that can be dealt with in this model are those of depression, abuse of drugs and substances, low self esteem and suicidal tendencies.