Introducing Korean adolescent counselling systems: Implications for future directions

Adolescence is the period when teenagers need to enhance competencies, develop independence and experience important transitions in their lives. In addition to typical developmental tasks, Korean adolescents experience unique stressors due to highly competitive nature of the educational system in the country. It is commonly believed that they are more likely to get high-paying jobs or higher social status once they enter prestigious universities. This belief forces the students to spend a considerable amount of time studying and results in pressure to show high levels of academic performance. Consequently, Korean adolescents experience excessive academic stress, which may lead to a broad range of psychological difficulties. These stressors have led to an increased number of clients seeking counselling services in the past years, with a total of 5 million students at all school levels presenting in 2018. The presenting issues and concerns included interpersonal relationships, academic/career difficulties, mental health issues and juvenile delinquency. In order to best serve adolescent clients, Korea has different service delivery systems including Community Youth Safety-Net (CYS-Net). This system provides at-risk adolescents with customised services including counselling, protection, education and shelters by linking youth-related resources in the community. Overall, the current article provides information regarding the Korean counselling system for adolescents. Specifically, we present (a) characteristics of the counselling system, (b) prevalence of presenting issues in counselling, (c) client characteristics, (d) service delivery systems, and (e) employment status of adolescent counsellors and school counsellors. Future directions for Korean adolescent counselling and implications are discussed.

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