A systematic literature review of school counselling needs in East and Southeast Asia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flow chart of the literature search.

Table 1. Overview of 109 studies reviewed that included information about school counselling policy barriers and needs (n = number of studies).

Publication year	n	%
2011	2	1.8
2012	5	4.6
2013	10	9.2
2014	10	9.2
2015	8	7.3
2016	2	1.8
2017	10	9.2
2018	5	4.6
2019	11	10.1
2020	13	11.2
2021	9	8.3
2022	15	13.8
2033	9	8.3
Countries and geographic regions
Bangladesh	1	0.9
Bhutan	2	1.8
China	9	8.3
Hong Kong	12	11
India	14	12.8
Indonesia	16	14.7
Japan	3	2.8
South Korea	9	8.3
Malaysia	9	8.3
Philippines	6	5.5
Singapore	8	7.3
Sri Lanka	2	1.8
Taiwan	3	2.8
Vietnam	7	6.4
Multiple	8	7.3
Job Description of person implementing school counselling services
School counsellor	83	76.2
School guidance and vocational counsellor	9	8.3
Teacher counsellor	8	7.3
School psychologist	4	3.7
Clinical psychologist counsellor	2	1.8
Social worker	1	0.9
Multiple	2	1.8
Study type
Qual. Interview	38	34.9
Country Case Study of School Counselling Services	27	24.8
Quant. Survey	26	23.9
Book or book chapter	8	7.3
Programme evaluation	5	4.6
Review	3	2.8
Thesis	2	1.8

Table 2. Taxonomy of Policy Levers (Aluede et al., 2020; Morshed & Carey, 2020). Additional levers and levers collapsed together indicated in bold (n = number of studies mentioning the foci or lever)

Foci	Levers	n	%
A. Assuring the initial competence of school – based counsellors	A1. Licensing/certifying school-based counsellors	35	32.1
	A2. Accrediting school counselor training programmes	31	28.4
	A3. Providing funding to improve the quality of school counselor training programmes	2	1.8
	A4: Providing initial and regular training relevant to current needs of students (new lever)	54	49.5
B. Assuring the continuing competence of school counsellors	B1. Requiring professional development for relicensing	0	0
	B2. Providing support for professional development education for school counselor	11	10.1
	B3. Requiring periodic personnel evaluation of school counsellors	0	0
	B4: Providing regular supervision (new lever)	27	24.8
C. Promoting the use of effective school counselling practices	C1. Advocating for best practices	16	14.7
	C2. Developing and disseminating resources to support effective practice	22	20.2
D. Ensuring that school counselling activities are planned, organised, and evaluated well in schools	D1. Developing or adopting a model for school counselling practice	53	48.6
	D2. Developing a model of stakeholder collaboration (new lever)	41	37.6
E. Promoting a distinct school counselor role in schools	E1. Developing a distinct job classification and description for school-based counsellors	19	17.4
	E2. Developing or adopting a role statement for school-based counsellors	45	41.3
	E3. Mandating that some school counselling-related activities are delivered in schools	0	0
F. Promoting the hiring school counsellors in schools	F1/F2. Suggesting/Mandating that schools have counsellors (2 levers combined)	7	6.4
	F3. Requiring that only qualified counsellors be employed in schools	6	5.5
	F4. Suggesting appropriate student to counselor staffing ratio	0	0
	F5. Mandating appropriate student to counselor staffing ratio	7	6.4
	F6/F7. Funding/Hiring school counsellors and placing them in schools (2 levers combined)	6	5.5
	F8. Mandating the number of school counsellors to be hired in each year	1	0.9
	F9. Need to train and/or hire more school counsellors (new lever)	27	24.8
	F10. Motivation and retention of school counsellors (new lever)	8	7.3
G. Ensuing that the country’s school counselling system continuously improves	2 levers combined	13	12
H. Enhancing the capacity of educational leaders to support the implementation of high-quality school-based counselling services	H1. Developing school-based counselor leaders at the state/national level	15	13.8
	H2. Developing school-based counselor leaders at the district and school levels	1	0.9
	H3. Educating school leaders on the effective management of school-based counselling programmes and supervision of school-based counsellors	6	5.5
I. Initiatives to overcome societal level barriers (new focus)	I1. Need to overcome stigma towards mental health and school counselling (new lever)	37	33.9
	I2. Need for more awareness of mental health and counselling such as through campaigns (new lever)	26	23.9
	I3. Need to overcome cultural barriers such as inappropriateness of sharing issues with adults outside the family (new lever)	16	14.7
J. Policy alignment with the school setting (new focus)	none	26	23.9

Figure 2. Model of recommended steps towards the improvement of school counselling services.

Aluede, O., Brady, B., Jin, Y. Y., Morshed, M. M., & Carey, J. C. (2020). Development of the taxonomy of policy levers to promote high quality school-based counseling: An initial test of its utility and comprehensiveness. Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation, 2(2), 102–112. https://doi.org/10.25774/a23t-2245

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Morshed, M. M., & Carey, J. (2020). Development of a taxonomy of policy levers to promote high quality school-based counseling. Journal of School-Based Counseling Policy and Evaluation, 2(2), 95–101. https://doi.org/10.25774/9scb-j720

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Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [SH], upon request.