Although some studies have been conducted on high school students with fewer social contacts, i.e., lack of social interactions, these have not addressed all high school students, who may have fewer social contacts for whatever reasons, but rather specific groups, such as high school students who are ignored, rejected, lonely or high school students who have an introverted personality. Likewise, not all high school students with lack of social interactions are identified in the literature. No studies have yet been carried out in the context of social work for this group of people to capture the everyday problems of these secondary school students and to find out, from their perspective, how they feel about their everyday school life, what they need, what possible problems they face and how counselling might help them to feel more socially accepted. As this kind of research had not been carried out before, and as I was interested in the answers to the questions mentioned above, I carried out a qualitative study in order to obtain verbal descriptions. I wanted to get first-hand answers, i.e., directly from secondary school students - if they see themselves as secondary school students with fewer social contacts at all. I therefore invited them to participate on the basis of the opinions of other people (counselling service, their parents, acquaintances) who saw them as secondary school students with fewer social contacts. I conducted interviews with ten selected secondary school students, which were then processed in a qualitative way using open and axial coding.
The theoretical background I have used for a better understanding of the group of secondary school students I am researching and the research questions is a summary of primary and secondary education and counselling work. Next, I outline social acceptance and the factors that influence it, the adolescent's life-world and the factors that influence it (both external and internal), and summarise previously conducted studies on similar topics.
Based on the results, I found that not necessarily all secondary school students with fewer social contacts are necessarily identified by others as having lack of social interactions, or not all secondary school students who were perceived by others as having fewer social contacts feel this way themselves. It is clear from the above that it is difficult to identify a secondary school student with lack of social interactions. Among the reasons why someone has fewer contacts, most of them mentioned difficulties in making contact, some of them mentioned interests and values and various personality traits such as shyness, non-communicativeness, introvertedness and others that might lead them to have fewer social contacts. Other possible reasons included the influence of external factors or influences from the environment (parents, classmates, teachers, etc.). All of this points to the complexity of the reasons why someone has fewer contacts, and that these reasons are usually intertwined. However, I have not been able to find a direct correlation between the number of social contacts and academic performance. When it comes to prejudice and stereotypes, it was found that secondary school students with fewer social contacts are more likely to experience them. In the case of bullying and peer violence, the link is not so direct. In fact, the results do not suggest that secondary school students with fewer social contacts are always the ones who will experience more bullying and violence. Several factors appear to play a part in this. With regard to classes, the results show that many secondary school students would like to see changes in the format and delivery of classes, but the number of social contacts does not seem to have an impact on the need for change. However, some secondary school students have highlighted the problem faced by secondary school students with fewer social contacts, namely that they are exposed when forming groups and if they are removed from the class by the counselling service. Opinions were divided on how the counselling service could help secondary school students with fewer social contacts. Some secondary school students thought that the counselling service could help them by organising clubs or other activities, by counselling or by providing more personal support. While other secondary school students think that it would be best for the counselling service to leave the secondary school students with lack of social interactions alone and not interfere in their lifestyle, or that a secondary school student with lack of social interactions knows best what is good for him/her. This suggests the need to use the concept of a working relationship in which the user is the expert from his or her own experience. According to the results, I suggest that counsellors and teachers be given training and awareness-raising on the problems that secondary school students with fewer social contacts may face, so that they will be able to help them appropriately and not expose them further. They will also set an example to their classmates and other peers by acting appropriately. In this way, exposure, potential prejudice, stereotyping, bullying and violence against secondary school students with fewer social contacts could be reduced. The counselling service should work more on a personal level with secondary school pupils with fewer social contacts, but carefully to avoid exposing them. Promoting the counselling service in the school and presenting it in a positive light would increase the likelihood that secondary school students would dare to seek help. The results also show the need for the counselling service to work with teachers so that they are also aware of the problems of secondary school students with lack of social interactions. With regard to the workload of the counsellors, another suggestion is that more counsellors should be employed in schools or that they should be relieved in other ways.
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