Vol. 15 No. 1 (2026): KONSELOR

This study examined the potential of a culturally tailored, school-based programme to promote early mental health literacy among adolescents at a remote Islamic boarding school in Malaysia. The programme incorporated psychoeducational activities, such as Hope Tree and Anxiety Jar, alongside classroom counselling and reflective booths, designed as low-resource, safe spaces grounded in Mental Health Literacy, Safe Space, and Empowerment Theory. Twenty-seven students participated across two cycles of participatory action research, with sessions lasting approximately 90 minutes. Data collection comprised participatory observations, written reflections, and informal interviews, and was analysed thematically. Results showed that students engaged in reflective exercises, identified stressors from school, peers, and family, and used counselling booths for confidential emotional sharing. For instance, one student reported feeling more at ease writing concerns before discussing them verbally with a teacher. Observations indicated early help-seeking behaviours and acceptance of emotional expression, though these behaviours varied among students. These findings underscore that contextually relevant, low-resource interventions can foster emotional engagement and initial mental health understanding in settings with limited professional support. Despite its short duration and small sample size, the study provides valuable insights for creating culturally responsive interventions in remote schools and points to future research on sustained engagement, involving less-vocal students, and adapting approaches to diverse educational environments.

Digital transformation has significantly altered the manner in which students access and interpret career information, thereby increasing the relevance of digital literacy and career guidance for career planning at the secondary education level. This research investigates the relationships among digital literacy, career guidance, and the career-planning tendencies of senior high school students. A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed, involving 150 senior high school students in Baubau City, Indonesia, selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected utilizing a self-report instrument developed based on theoretical frameworks and tested for validity and reliability within this study. Data analysis was performed using multiple linear regression. The findings indicate that digital literacy and career guidance are positively and significantly correlated with students' career planning, both concurrently and independently, with the model accounting for 35.9% of the variance in career planning. These results suggest that students' career planning is linked to their ability to manage digital-based career information and the reflective support provided through school-based career guidance services. This study offers empirical evidence derived from the context of secondary education in Indonesia, demonstrating the relationship between digital literacy and career guidance in fostering students' career-planning orientation.

Counselling ethics has been predominantly shaped by Western philosophical traditions, yet its application in culturally diverse settings requires ethical grounding that resonates with local moral understandings. Rather than assuming limitations in international codes, this study examines how a contextualised ethical perspective may complement existing frameworks by exploring the teachings of Abah Anom, a widely respected Sufi guide whose ethical reflections remain influential within Indonesian Muslim communities. His teachings are analysed not as theological prescriptions but as culturally situated ethical resources that illuminate intention, emotional discipline, relational presence, and moral orientation in counselling practice. The study employs a Gadamerian hermeneutic approach, drawing on textual sources, including Miftahus Shudur, sermon transcripts, and institutional documents, and purposively selected informants comprising senior disciples, a Sufi scholar, and counsellors familiar with his teachings. The analytic process followed an iterative part-whole movement, dialogical interpretation, and socio-religious contextualisation to construct meaning across texts, participant experiences, and contemporary counselling concerns. The analysis identifies four ethical dispositions: sincerity, patience, empathy, and service, as dynamic modes of ethical self-formation rather than fixed moral virtues. These dispositions guide counsellors in aligning intention with client welfare, regulating affective responses, deepening relational understanding, and maintaining an orientation of service towards others. A key interpretative insight that emerged is the view of ethical practice as an ongoing cultivation of inner states, offering an alternative perspective to procedural or rule-based approaches commonly emphasised in professional codes. The study contributes by showing how a local Sufi moral framework can enter into constructive dialogue with global counselling ethics and enrich culturally responsive practice without proposing doctrinal authority or universal applicability. Future research may focus on how these ethical dispositions are enacted in real counselling interactions or undertake comparative hermeneutic studies across other Indonesian spiritual traditions.

Recent research in Islamic counselling and psychology has explored spiritual strategies for family conflicts, but the experiential meaning of Sufi-based practices within counselling remains underexplored. Most existing studies describe Sufi ideas theoretically but rarely examine how counsellors and families experience these principles in tension, reconciliation, and relational adjustments. This study fills that gap by examining how specific Sufi values are embodied, interpreted, and applied in Islamic family counselling sessions. Using a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach inspired by van Manen, the research involved five Muslim counsellors and eight families, selected through purposive sampling from a community counselling network. Data collection included detailed interviews and ethically approved observations of counselling sessions during non-private moments. Analyses combined meaning-unit condensation with reflexive thematic analysis. Three experiential themes emerged: (1) inner readiness as an ethical foundation, where both counsellors and parents describe quieting the heart as essential for dialogue; (2) embodied spiritual regulation, with practices like dhikr helping to recalibrate emotional intensity and foster empathetic listening; and (3) relational deliberation, where Qur’an-guided reflection promotes more collaborative and less adversarial decision-making. These results offer a contextual understanding of how Sufi-inspired spirituality influences conflict resolution in Indonesian Muslim families. Further studies should explore these patterns in various settings and larger samples.

This study offers a systematic bibliometric analysis of global conflict resolution research published between 2000 and 2025. Its aim is to identify publication trends, leading countries and institutions, influential authors, productive journals, and thematic developments within the field, serving as guidance for studies in guidance and counselling. Using the PRISMA protocol, data were solely retrieved from the Scopus database, limited to peer-reviewed English-language journal articles. The final dataset was analysed using VOSviewer to map co-authorship networks, institutional collaborations, citation patterns, and keyword co-occurrence. The results reveal a steady increase in the number of conflict resolution publications, with the most significant growth occurring from 2020 to 2025. The United States emerged as the most prolific contributor, followed by Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, and Spain. Leading institutions such as the University of California, Utrecht University, Southwest University, Tel Aviv University, and Beijing Normal University demonstrate strong collaborative activity. Thematic mapping indicates a sustained research focus on interpersonal conflict, emotion regulation, communication, and peace education. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the structure and evolution of conflict resolution research and highlights opportunities for future investigation, particularly in education and counselling.

Guidance and counselling services are vital in helping students manage their emotions, including those shaped by religious values. This descriptive study aims to demonstrate the effect of guidance and counselling rooted in religious values on students' emotional regulation. Data collection methods included interviews, documentation, and descriptive assessment scales on emotional regulation. The participants were selected through purposive non-random sampling, comprising 16 students who had received guidance and counselling on religious values and emotional regulation, as well as 2 counsellors providing these services. The analysis employed specific techniques. The counsellors' services involved guidance and counselling incorporating religious values such as patience, self-reflection, sincerity, striving for improvement, and faith in what Allah provides. These services contributed to improved emotional regulation by helping students identify causes of negative emotions, change thought patterns, and select activities that produce positive emotions. The religious values integrated into the guidance and counselling included classical guidance, group guidance, individual counselling, and group therapy. Students demonstrated increased capacity to regulate their emotions, especially when confronting changing situations that evoke emotions, with the least effective strategy being to divert attention from triggers of negative emotions. Based on these findings and the noted limitations, further research with a larger, more diverse population is essential. It is also important to explore how counselling services grounded in religious values can further enhance emotional regulation across diverse contexts.

Ki Hajar Dewantara is recognised as the Father of National Education and a National Hero of Indonesia. He established the Taman Siswa educational movement rooted in the principles of the Indonesian nation, aiming to enhance the dignity of the state and its people for the benefit of humanity globally. This qualitative research utilised a hermeneutic methodology to interpret Javanese literary traditions, particularly collections of Serat (manuscripts) and the aphoristic teachings of Ki Hajar Dewantara, and to express their meanings through systematic analysis. The researchers identified and developed the ideal traits of counsellors within the framework of Ki Hajar Dewantara’s philosophical framework. The findings demonstrate a clear, mutually supportive connection among the ideal qualities of counsellors, counselling communication techniques, and Ki Hajar Dewantara’s educational philosophy.

Adolescent behavioural and substance-related addictive tendencies have become an increasing concern due to their potential impact on mental well-being and academic performance. However, research on the psychosocial contexts associated with these tendencies has been limited, especially from a gender perspective. This study aimed to investigate gender-related differences in self-reported addiction symptoms and related psychosocial triggers among adolescents. A quantitative comparative design was used, involving 92 high school students in East Java. Data were collected using a self-administered screening questionnaire comprising 12 items across four dimensions: psychological stress, family pressure, social pressure, and social media influence. Descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests were conducted using SPSS Statistics. Descriptively, participants reported the highest mean media influence scores. Female respondents reported slightly higher mean values on several dimensions; however, no statistically significant gender differences were found in overall addiction symptom scores or across psychosocial trigger dimensions. Effect size estimates indicated small differences between groups. These findings suggest that psychosocial addiction triggers are generally comparable across genders within this sample. The results should be interpreted with caution and are intended to offer descriptive insights rather than causal conclusions. Limitations include reliance on self-reported measures, a modest sample size, and a cross-sectional design. Future research should utilise validated instruments and larger samples to further explore the psychosocial mechanisms underlying adolescent addiction-related behaviours.

Parental acceptance is crucial for the development and well-being of children with cerebral palsy, yet it remains insufficiently studied within Muslim family settings. This research aims to examine the types of acceptance, the factors influencing them, and the challenges faced by Muslim parents of children with cerebral palsy in Padang, Indonesia, through the lens of family counselling. A qualitative case study approach was adopted, involving five parents of children with cerebral palsy at the Gadang Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Data collection involved in-depth face-to-face interviews and documentation, followed by thematic analysis. Findings showed that all five parents exhibited five main aspects of acceptance: (1) understanding children’s feelings, (2) recognising children’s rights, (3) understanding children’s expressions and desires, (4) respecting children’s differences, and (5) fulfilling children’s needs. Acceptance was mainly influenced by knowledge, personal experience, family support, and socioeconomic status, whereas hope and career considerations had less effect. Nonetheless, parents encountered significant challenges, such as parenting stress, limited social support, and difficulties in understanding their children’s physical, psychological, emotional, and communicative traits. These insights underscore the urgent necessity for structured family counselling programmes addressing parental stress and enhancing acceptance capacity among Muslim families caring for children with cerebral palsy.

Bullying in schools continues to affect victims in various ways. One significant impact is the decline in their academic performance and achievement motivation. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of motivational interviewing techniques in enhancing achievement motivation among victims of bullying. It employed a true experimental design with a pre-test and post-test control group. Data were gathered using an achievement motivation scale developed specifically for victims of bullying. Participants were selected based on their responses, specifically those with low achievement motivation. Since the data were not normally distributed, the Mann-Whitney test was used for analysis. An N-gain test assessed the technique's effectiveness. Results from the Mann-Whitney test showed a significant difference (p = 0.009) in score distributions between the experimental and control groups after intervention. The experimental group, which received motivational interviewing, achieved an average N-gain score of 58.05%, indicating it was quite effective compared to the control group that received routine counselling. In summary, motivational interviewing techniques have demonstrated considerable effectiveness in increasing achievement motivation among victims of bullying.

Academic stress is one of the main problems faced by university students, especially in the context of increasingly digitised learning. This study aims to analyse the roles of social support and digital competence in academic stress, and to test the function of academic self-efficacy as a mediating and moderating variable in this relationship. This study uses a quantitative, survey-based approach, involving 888 students as respondents. Data were collected using a Likert-scale questionnaire and analysed using Partial Least Squares-based Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that social support significantly affects digital competence and academic self-efficacy. Digital competence and academic self-efficacy also have significant effects on academic stress, but in opposite directions. Mediation analysis revealed that social support has multiple indirect mechanisms for academic stress via digital competence and academic self-efficacy. In addition, the moderation results showed that academic self-efficacy can alter the strength of the relationship between social support and digital competence in relation to academic stress. These findings confirm that student academic stress is influenced by the complex interaction between social, psychological, and digital factors. This study contributes to the development of a conceptual model of academic stress and provides practical implications for strengthening guidance and counselling services in higher education.