This master thesis consists of the theoretical part and research. In the theoretical part, which is based on valid documentation, legislation and quotations of the authors, I have presented the characteristics of growing up in modern society as well as in school and family environment. While reviewing the literature and existing researches, I focused in more detail on the mental health of Slovene children and youth. Thus, I have described the role of the school counselling service as one of the forms of professional help and support that should be the most accessible to children and adolescents, since it is obligatory in the public education system.
In the research part of the thesis, I have presented the findings of quantitative research, which was conducted with the help of 250 children and adolescents. I was mostly interested in which fields do children and adolescents experienced the most distress and whom they addressed it to. I was also interested in, to what extent they were aware of the existence and the role of the school counselling service and how much they needed and used it. The results have shown that children and adolescents experience the most distress in the school environment and in the field of their self-esteem. When experiencing distress, they most often turn to a friend or a classmate to talk to; otherwise, they prefer to talk to their mother rather than their father. Most children and adolescent even prefer not to talk at all rather than entrust their problems to their father. Quite a few stated that they did not always have a person available to discuss their problems. A smaller percentage of children and adolescents stated that they were not aware of the existence of a school counselling service at their school, while a much higher percentage stated they were not aware of its role. Almost a third of survey participants were already in a situation, when they wanted to talk to a school counsellor, but they did not decide to do so. The predominant reasons for such a decision were mainly shame, the feeling that they could resolve the problem on their own or insufficient information. Children and adolescents feel relatively well in school, their home environment and in their free time. Among the mentioned environments, they feel the worst at school and are relatively concerned about further education and career guidance. According to the obtained results and some findings from the literature, I have also made some suggestions, which are listed at the end.
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