Large population of youths in informal settlement in Kenya are involved in a number of social vices. These vices may include but not limited to robbery with violence, early marriages, dropping out of school and joining outlawed gangs. Youth involvement in social vices presents great concern to parents, government and non-governmental organizations. With increased prevalence of social vices in informal settlements in Kenya, this study was motivated to investigate the influence of psychosocial factors on drug abuse among the youths in Mathare informal settlements of Nairobi County, Kenya. This study sought to determine the effect of stress level as a psychosocial factor on drug abuse among the youths in Mathare informal settlement. The unit of analysis were persons of both genders falling between 18 years and 35 years of age. The target population was 17,894 youths of which a sample of 391 respondents was selected using proportionate stratified random sampling method. Data was collected using structured questionnaires and analysed using the linear regression analysis where hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance. The Content Validity Index (CVI) was utilized for the purposes of validity. The validity of the instruments was checked by the researcher who also sought the opinion of experts from the School of Education in Laikipia University. The reliability coefficients for questionnaire were estimated through Cronbach’s alpha. The resultant alpha for youth questionnaire was r= .827. The questionnaires were considered reliable after yielding a reliability coefficient alpha of at least 0.70. Both the descriptive statistics and inferential statistics was used by the study. The descriptive statistics that were used included the mean, standard deviations and frequency distributions. From the data analysis it was evident that stress level contributes to 2.8% of drug abuse cases among youth in Mathare informal settlements. The study recommends that county Government of Nairobi to economically empower the community of people with emphasis on the youths. This will help them think beyond immediate daily survival and assert greater control over their resources and life choices, especially decisions in investment in health, housing and education. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0760/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The research evaluates the effect of the development of Guidance and Counselling programmes on individual self-efficacy in the Administration Police Service of Kenya. The study was guided by the Well-being theory by Martin Seligman. The study adopted the Ex-post-facto research design and stratified random sampling technique was used to select 367 participants from a population of 7,404 Administration Police (AP) officers while 20 key informants were purposively sampled. The study utilized both qualitative and quantitative methods in data collection. Self-administered questionnaires and an interview schedule were used to collect data. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to establish the reliability of the instruments which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.81.Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 25.0) was used in analyzing the quantitative data. Qualitative data was analyzed inductively and deductively through thematic content analysis. The study revealed that though the Administration Police Service (APS) offered counselling services to its officers, not many officers had benefitted from the programmed services therefore these services were not effective in training self-efficacy among the officers.The study established that the low uptake of the psychological counselling programme can be attributed to the fact that the program has not been decentralized to the lowest level that is the sub-county which is the lowest centres of service delivery for the APS. Secondly there were few professional counsellors within the APS, the study also revealed that the officers were reluctant to take up the programme due to the fear of being stereotyped by their colleagues. The study recommends, the strengthening of the APS Psychological Counselling programme through the employment of professional counsellors to cater for the counselling needs of the APS; sanitization of the importance of mental health that is advocacy to the police officers and infrastructural development for spaces for carrying out the psychological services and the decentralization of the psychological counselling programme up to the lowest level of service delivery for the AP officers which is the Subcounty level.

The issue of occupational stress has been a growing area of concern in many professions and has been revealed as a particularly serious problem among school administrators (Montegomery & Rupp, 2005). The term, teacher stress, gained momentum in the 1970's with a significant increase in studies focusing on stress in this profession (Commer, Hanif, Tariq, & Nadeem, 2011). Previous research surveys in the United Kingdom found typical rates of approximately one-third of school administrators surveyed reporting their job as stressful or extremely stressful (Kyriacou, 1987; Eres & Atanasoska, 2011). The issue is not limited to secondary school administrators but extends to primary school also, for example Chaplain (1995) found that approximately 23% of the primary school administrators in his study identified their work as 'very' or 'extremely' stressful. (Murray, 2007), also found that 3 out of 4 second level school administrators felt under constant pressure as a result of stress. The particular study found that the common stressors were workload, teaching classes with a wide ability range and not having enough time to spend with students. According to Kendi (2012), there is strong influence of occupational stress on the head teacher's tasks in Kericho County. Kendi found that occupational demand among the secondary school heads influences the level of stress among the secondary school administrators. According to Wangai (2012), in a study conducted in Mwatate district of Kenya, it was found that occupational demands has led to many school heads to undergo stress and mental health issues. According to Koech, Tikoko and Chemwei (2014) found that teacher and secondary school administrators undergo a lot of occupational demands that causes the stress among the school administrators and teachers. Austin, Shah and Muncer (2005) found that the most common work stress among their participants was work overload which lead to the school administrators carrying the work at home to proceed to working at home. This study

Student retention in schools however remains a global challenge and affects any social establishment in the world irrespective of a societies’ civilization. Non-completion of secondary schooling continues to be a matter of concern for policymakers and practitioners worldwide. Non-retention of students in schools means schools producing citizens who are not adequately prepared to be absorbed into the country’s labor force; instead of becoming a liability to those whom they depend on. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to determine the effectiveness of guidance and counseling programme in enhancing students’ retention in public day secondary schools in Nyahururu Sub-County, Laikipia County. The study used ex-post facto research design and was guided by the Person-Centered Theory and Retention Theory. Data was collected from proportionately sampled schools from the 26-public day secondary schools in the 6 zones namely: Gituamba, Igwamiti, Kinamba, Marmanet, Nyahururu and Salama of the sub-county which had a target of form 4 students’ population of 1855, 26 principals and 52 guidance and counseling teachers. Simple random sampling was used to determine the male and female students who were the primary respondents in this study while purposive sampling was used on the guidance and counseling teachers as well as the principals. A sample size of 341 participants was used in this study which comprised 174 boys, 155 girls, 6 guidance and counseling teachers and 6 principals. Data was collected using questionnaires that were filled by the student respondents and guidance and counseling teachers. An interview schedule was administered to the principals by the researcher. The validity of the research instruments was ensured by establishing their face validity and were verified by the research experts in the School of Education in Laikipia University. Reliability of the research instruments was achieved through a pilot study in 2 schools in the neighboring county of Nyandarua and were considered reliable after yielding a reliability coefficient of Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93. This indicated that the instruments were reliable. The data collected were sorted and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Qualitative data were subjected to content analysis while quantitative data was analyzed descriptively in form of frequencies and percentages using SPSS version 24.0 software. The study found that the effectiveness of guidance and counseling programme enhanced students’ retention by helping students deal with challenges affecting personal and social life as well as academic achievement. The study recommended that the guidance and counseling programme should be supported by promoting teacher counsellor preparedness, the support given by the school administration and encouraging student gender receptiveness of the programme. The findings might benefit the Ministry of Education in enhancing students’ retention, school administrators in retaining students in school after enrolment, guidance and counseling teachers in acknowledging the input of guidance and counseling programme towards students’ retention, parents and students by getting enlightened on the support given in school to encourage students to remain focused in learning till completion of school.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0927/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>