Vol. 14 No. 1 (2025): KONSELOR

Flow is a source of mental energy because it focuses on attention and motivates the individual to perform an action. The concept of flow was developed by a psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Csikszentmihalyi studied the flow phenomenon in the 1970s and found that individuals who experience flow will feel total involvement in an activity, which then leads them into an optimal experience. On the other hand, students need academic flow to successfully complete lectures, study, and work assignments. This study aims to determine and to explore factors and impacts of flow for university students. This study used a systematic literature review method based on the PRISMA flow diagram. This study used data from 13 eligible and credible articles. The results demonstrated that students can strive to achieve flow by understanding related factors and impacts. In addition, the abilities are required for educators to foster academic flow. Therefore, although flow is a condition related to students‘ internal conditions, this study shows that flow can also be influenced by external factors.

A first-time father faces numerous problems when his first child is born, including feelings of powerlessness, anxiety, and frustration. This depression will have a detrimental impact on both children's development, marital satisfaction, and family well-being. The stages of writing a narrative literature review based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) phases start from 1) selecting a review topic, 2) searching the literature, 3) collecting, reading, and analysing the literature, 4) writing the review, and 5) writing the reference list. This review included 13 research articles that fit the required inclusion criteria, i.e., articles on father participation, first-time father participants, and papers published between 2019 and 2024 retrieved from the Scopus database, Taylor & Francis Online, ProQuest, Sage Journals, and the Sinta platform from the Ministry of Education and Culture. We do not screen proceedings papers that are not peer-reviewed or published outside of 2019 and 2024. We excluded news pieces, literature reviews, book reviews, and popular articles from empirical or primary studies. Findings from this research review identified a range of factors associated with father involvement: 1) transition process, 2) emotional state, 3) self-efficacy, 4) depression, 5) social support, 6) role challenges, and 7) demographic characteristic. This study reveals that seven factors influence father involvement in infant care and have implications for counselling practice, e.g., PUSPAGA (Pusat Pembelajaran Keluarga or Family Learning Centre).  The majority of studies examined have concentrated on populations from Western cultures, with little consideration given to non-Western cultures, this study only addressing some Asian (e.g., Chinese, Thai, Korean, and Singaporean) and African cultures. Therefore, it is important to understand how different cultures influence father involvement, as the responses of fathers in a particular culture to their parental role cannot be generalised to all fathers from that cultural background.

This systematic literature review (SLR) explores technostress among educators in post-COVID-19 education. While technostress—stress caused by technology use—has been extensively studied in non-educational settings, its impact on educators remains underexamined, particularly as the pandemic accelerated digital adoption in teaching. This review addresses this gap by analysing the key stressors associated with technology, their underlying causes, their effects on educators, and potential mitigation strategies, including the role of counselling.  We used the PRISMA guidelines to search six academic databases (Emerald Insight, ProQuest, Taylor & Francis, SAGE, ScienceDirect, and Scopus) for peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2025 that look specifically at tech-related stress among teachers. The search initially yielded 1,142 articles, with 23 meeting the inclusion criteria for in-depth analysis. The findings reveal that excessive digital workloads, the complexity of new technological tools, work-life imbalance, and inadequate institutional support are primary contributors to technostress. These challenges are further exacerbated by limited training and resources. Additionally, individual factors such as digital competence, self-efficacy, and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) play a significant role in determining educators’ ability to cope with technology-related stressors. This review provides valuable insights into the challenges of technostress and outlines strategies for intervention. The findings offer practical recommendations for educational institutions, policymakers, and counsellors to create more sustainable and supportive digital learning environments.

This study investigates student behavior in utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to address academic and personal challenges, as well as the subsequent implications for guidance and counseling services within Islamic higher education contexts. A qualitative research approach was employed, utilizing literature reviews and semi-structured interviews conducted with four counselors and six students from an Islamic higher education institution in Bengkulu. Data analysis followed the Miles and Huberman interactive model, encompassing data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The findings indicate that students predominantly use AI tools to efficiently manage academic tasks, such as organizing schedules and accessing information. However, excessive dependence on AI has been observed to adversely affect students' critical thinking abilities, as they often unquestioningly accept instantaneous solutions provided by these technologies without deeper reflection or critical assessment. Additionally, counselors identified significant challenges in integrating AI technologies with a humanistic and spiritually grounded counseling approach rooted in Islamic values, particularly concerning issues of data privacy, confidentiality, and ethical use of technology. The results of this study emphasize the necessity of developing a balanced strategy that combines the advantages of AI with robust human interaction in counseling practices. Consequently, it is recommended that Islamic higher education institutions enhance counselor training in ethical AI utilization, while concurrently supporting students in cultivating critical thinking capacities and moral consciousness aligned with Islamic ethical frameworks. Future research should consider employing quantitative methodologies to statistically assess AI's impact on students' academic and personal development and to broaden the exploration of effective integration between technological advancements and Islamic educational values.

This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of narrative counseling in enhancing the meaningfulness of life among high school and vocational students in Baubau City, Southeast Sulawesi Province. A quasi-experimental approach with a one-group pretest-posttest design was employed. The participants included 173 students who completed the Meaningfulness of Life Scale and 32 school counselor who had undergone narrative counseling capacity-building training. Through purposive random sampling, 34 school counselor were divided equally into experimental and control groups, with each group comprising 17 school counselor. Each teacher provided narrative counseling to 17 students identified with low to moderately low levels of meaningfulness in life. Narrative counseling sessions were conducted over 3 to 4 sessions by school counselor. The meaningfulness of students' lives was assessed through six indicators: self-understanding, positive attitude change, life purpose, strong commitment, self-direction, and effective social support seeking. Results indicated significant improvements across these indicators. Initially categorized predominantly as low, five indicators improved significantly to fairly high levels, while one indicator reached a moderate category post-intervention. The statistical analysis using the Wilcoxon test yielded a significance value of 0.01 (p < 0.05), confirming a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-intervention outcomes. The Asym.sig (2-tailed) result also confirmed this significance with a value of 0.01. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of narrative counseling in enhancing students' meaningfulness of life. Consequently, narrative counseling is validated as a valuable strategy for empowering students in high school and vocational settings, significantly fostering their sense of purpose and life direction.