Psychological Well-Being of Prospective Counselors from the Faith-Based Educational Institution in the COVID-19 Outbreak.

This study aims to analyze the Psychological Well-Being among prospective counselors from the Faith-Based Educational Institution during the COVID-19 pandemic. The approach of this study was quantitative with a descriptive method. The Psychological Well-Being among prospective counselors is at a high classification level, namely 84%. The components of Psychological Well-Being that are above the total average score are Positive Relationship with Other People and components of Self-Growth.

Introduction

Students are individuals who experience a transition period from late adolescence to early adulthood. The more students move toward adulthood, the more changes in tasks and responsibilities they will face. An example is students as individuals who experience a transition period from late adolescence to early adulthood. However, according to Smolak (in Awaliyah & Listiyandini, 2017), students cannot be said to be teenagers or adults. Therefore, Wibowo quotes Hurlock (in Awaliyah & Listiyandini, 2017) that students who are generally around 18–25 years old are in transitional adulthood. Transitional adulthood is said to be a period of exploration, where individuals have the opportunity to do everything possible, such as doing new things and a different way of life. In addition, according to Amet (in Awaliyah & Listiyandini, 2017), transitional adulthood is also a stage where individuals are no longer considered teenagers, but individuals are also not ready to carry out adult tasks.

As individuals entering a transitional period, students often have to be faced with various forms of conflict. According to Ismail and Indrawati (in Awaliyah & Listiyandini, 2017) the existence of various forms of conflict and developmental tasks faced by students can cause difficulties in finding psychological well-being. Various pressing conflicts can be experienced by students which eventually triggers stress. Stress is defined by Yolanda et al. (2021) as an organism's response in order to adjust to demands that can be sourced from factual things that are happening or things that are likely to happen. For example, more demands from their environment for the view that students are the educated young generation who are the hope of the nation's successors in the future. The factual problem that is currently happening is the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that affects most students’ lives. Bao et al. (in Afini & Hanifah, 2021) revealed that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic can cause stressful conditions for everyone. It can be seen how many people are worried about an uncertain future, worry about economic problems, longing for parents and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Fauziyyah et al. (2021), online learning methods (distance learning) are still considered less efficient and less effective. This is due to obstacles in the implementation of distance learning, including inadequate devices to unstable internet networks.

In addition, according to the Ministry of Health in America (in Awaliyah & Listiyandini, 2017), students have various sources of stress, namely academic pressure, environmental changes with new responsibilities, changes in social relationships, financial responsibilities, facing bigger decisions, recognizing identities, and sexual orientation, as well as preparing for life after college. One of the real evidence of student stress is academic stress. Based on Lubis et al. (2021) showed that from 204 samples of students from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) Mulawarman University, it turns out that there are many students who experience academic stress in the moderate category as many as 39.2%, academic stress in the high category of 27%, academic stress in the low category of 21%, academic stress in the very high category of 6.9% and also academic stress in the very low category of 5.4%. From these data, it can be concluded that many students of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences from Mulawarman University are experiencing academic stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, there is also a study conducted by Ubaidillah (in Khoirunnisa & Ratnaningsih, 2017) and it is found that there is a relationship between adjustment to stress in new students and Psychological Well-Being. Then, according to research conducted by Sarina (in Khoirunnisa & Ratnaningsih, 2017) the lower the academic stress of students, the higher the value of Psychological Well-Being. In the research of Clemente et al. (2016, in Aulia & Panjaitan, 2019) it was also concluded that an individual's stress level will decrease if he has a better level of Psychological Well-Being. Thus, the level of stress that appears on students is actually also influenced by the Psychological Well-Being achieved by each individual (Aulia & Panjaitan, 2019).

Ryff (in Sumakul & Ruata, 2020) defines Psychological Well-Being as the achievement of full psychological potential and a state in which individuals can accept themselves, have goals in life and develop positive social relationships, are independent and able to control the environment. In addition, Springer and Pudrovka (in Prabowo, 2016) also define Psychological Well-Being as an individual's effort to focus on self-realization, self-statement, and self-actualization. Ryff and Keyes (in Savitri & Listiyandini, 2017), considers that Psychological Well-Being is a person's mental condition that is considered healthy and can function optimally. Someone who has high Psychological Well-Being will have his/her own life goals (Safitri & Listiyandini, 2017). In addition, according to Aulia and Panjaitan (2019), individuals who have good Psychological Well-Being will be able to adapt to the surrounding environment and be able to face the academic demands faced by students. He/she will be able to determine the direction of his/her own life so that he/she has clear goals and targets. There are factors that can affect Psychological Well-Being. According to Ryff and Singer (in Sumakul & Ruata, 2020), gender, age, occupation, and education level can affect a person's Psychological Well-Being. However, according to Schmutte and Ryff (in Sumakul & Ruata, 2020), factors that affect Psychological Well-Being include work, health, physical, and personal personality.

Based on this description, the authors are interested in knowing the description of the level of Psychological Well-Being of prospective counselors from the Faith-Based Educational Institution during the COVID-19 Pandemic, as follow-up research from Pangestu et al. (2022). Students in this study were limited to the context of prospective counselors who came from this program. This is because students are prospective counselors who will provide quality counseling services. Thus, further studies are needed regarding Psychological Well-Being especially for Guidance and Counseling students so that they are able to make efforts to improve Psychological Well-Being so that they can build a positive attitude as a prospective counselors in the future, and support the achievement of developmental tasks as an early adult individual. In connection with these criteria, prospective counselors from the 2017 to 2020 class are included as research subjects.

Methods

The data in this study are primary data with a sample of 44 as prospective counselors from the Faith-Based Educational Institutions class 2017–2020 consisting of 33 women and 11 men. This type of research uses a quantitative approach with a descriptive method. The data collection technique used in this study is a Psychological Well-Being questionnaire (AKESIS) with alternative answer choices in the form of a rating scale using Google Form. AKESIS was developed by authors with reference to the Psychological Well-Being dimension by Ryff (in Savitri & Listiyandini, 2017) which contains 32 statements. The 32 statements consist of six components which contain five Self-Acceptance statements, 11 statements about Positive Relationship with Other People, four statements about Independence/Autonomy, four statements about Environmental Mastery four statements about Life Purpose, and four statements about Self-Growth. Furthermore, the questionnaire was distributed through the WhatsApp application to the specified subjects. The data collection carried out in this study used a purposive sampling method. Furthermore, the results of the data obtained are directly processed by authors by classifying the level of Psychological Well-Being into three categories, namely high, medium, and low. After that, the authors analyzed the data results based on scientific theories that were relevant to the acquisition of data in the field which were then used to draw conclusions.

Results

According to Fraenkel, Wallen, and Hyun (in Yusuf, 2018), an instrument is said to be reliable if the reliability coefficient value is more than 0.70 (ri > 0.70). The AKESIS instrument in this study has a reliability value of 0.882 based on the Cronbach Alpha, so it can be concluded that the AKESIS instrument in this study is suitable to be used to measure Psychological Well-Being variables. Following are the results of statistical analysis related to the level of Psychological Well-Being of 44 prospective counselors. Authors classify the level of Psychological Well-Being into three categories, namely high, medium, and low. The way of classifying the three categories begins with determining the highest score. Determination of the highest score is done by multiplying the largest weight (5) of each alternative answer choice by the total number of statements (32 statements), resulting in a total of 160. Furthermore, the lowest score is calculated by multiplying the smallest weight (1) of each alternative answer choice multiplied by the whole number of statements (32 statements). The score range is then determined by subtracting the highest score from the lowest score, that is 160–32, resulting in a total of 128. The results of this calculation form three classifications of Psychological Well-Being levels by dividing the range of scores by three, namely 128/3 resulting in a total of 46.27. Thus, the classification of the level of Psychological Well-Being can be categorized as shown in Table 1.

Table 1.

Classification of Psychological Well-being Levels.

Group score	Classification	Frequency	Percentage
118–160	High	37	84%
76-117	Medium	7	16%
32-75	Low	-	-
Total		44	100%

The results of the calculation of the range of scores on the classification of Psychological Well-Being levels indicate that the level of Psychological Well-Being in prospective counselors, among others: (1) the frequency of prospective counselors in the high category score group is 37 with a percentage of 84%, (2) the frequency of prospective counselors in the low category score group is seven with a percentage of 16%, and (3) there are no prospective counselors who have a low level of Psychological Well-Being.

The classification of the Psychological Well-Being of prospective counselors in each batch can be seen in Table 2.

Table 2.

Classification of Psychological Well-Being Levels.

Score	Classification	2017		2018		2019		2020		Total
		f	%	f	%	f	%	f	%	f	%
118–160	High	8	100	4	80	17	77	8	89	37	84
76–117	Medium	0	0	1	20	5	23	1	11	7	16
32–75	Low	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total		8	100	5	100	22	100	9	100	44	100

Based on Table 2, the results of the questionnaire that has been conducted show that the level of Psychological Well-Being of prospective counselors in the 2017 class has a high score, which is 100% with a total of eight respondents. Then, the level of Psychological Well-Being of prospective counselors in 2018 has a high score of 80% with four respondents and a moderate score of 20% with one respondent. In addition, the level of Psychological Well-Being of prospective counselors in 2019 has a high score of 77% with 17 respondents and a moderate score of 23% with five respondents. The level of Psychological Well-Being of prospective counselors in 2020 has a high score of 89% with eight respondents and a moderate score of 11% with one respondent.

Each component on the level of Psychological Well-Being has a different score. Details of the scores for each component can be seen in Table 3.

Table 3.

Distribution of Average Score.

Components	Indicator	Number of questions	Total score	Average score
Self-acceptance	1. Accepting one's strengths and weaknesses	3	535	178.33
	2. Positive toward myself	2	315	157.5
Total sub-component score		5	850	170
Positive relationship with other people	1. Building relationships with others	6	1090	181.67
	2. Giving and receiving support	5	974	194.8
Total sub-component score		11	2064	187.64
Independence (autonomy)	1. Expressing opinions	2	312	156
	2. Doing things without being directed by others	2	313	156.5
Total sub-component score		4	625	156.25
Environmental mastery	1. Doing a good job	2	355	177.5
	2. Taking advantage of the surrounding opportunities	2	316	158
Total sub-component score		4	671	167.75
Life purpose	1. Have a future plan	2	338	169
	2. Actively implementing the plan created	2	328	164
Total sub component score		4	666	166.5
Self-growth	1. Being open to new experiences and knowledge	2	353	176.5
	2. Developing one's own potential	2	357	178.5
Total sub-component score		4	710	177.5
Total component average score		32	5586	174.56

From Table 3, it can be seen that the average score for each component of Psychological Well-Being, namely the Self-Acceptance component is 170; the Positive Relationship with Other People is 187.64; the Independence component is 156.25; the Environmental Control component is 167.75; the Life Purpose component is 166.5; and Self-Growth component is 178.5. The Psychological Well-Being component has the highest average score on the Positive Relationships with Other People component with a score of 187.64 and the lowest average score on the Independence component with a score of 156.25.

The components of Psychological Well-Being that have a score above the total average score, namely Positive Relationship with Other People and Self-Growth. In the component of Positive Relationships with Other People, both indicators, namely Building Relationships with Others and Giving and Receiving Support, have scores above the total average score. This is the same for the Self-Growth component. Both indicators, namely Being Open to New Experiences and Knowledge, as well as Developing One's Own Potential, have scores above the total average score.

In addition, there are components of Psychological Well-Being that have scores below the average total score, namely the Self-Acceptance component, the Independence component, the Environmental Mastery component, and the Life Purpose component. In the Self-Acceptance component, there are dominant indicators, namely the indicators of Accepting One's Strengths and Weaknesses. In the Independence component, the two indicators, namely Expressiong Opinions and Doing Things without Being Directed by Others, have scores below the total average score. In the Environmental Mastery component, the indicator of Doing a Good Job is an indicator that has a score above the total average score. Finally, in the Life Purpose component, both indicators, namely Have a Future Plan and Actively Implementing the Plan Created, have scores below the total average score.

Discussions

Based on the results of research data that has been processed, it is found that most of the respondents, namely 84% have a high level of Psychological Well-Being, and the remaining 16% have a moderate level of Psychological Well-Being. High Psychological Well-Being indicates that prospective counselors can accept themselves as they are (Self-Acceptance), form positive relationships with others (Positive Relations with Others), have independence in dealing with the social environment (Independence/Autonomy), can control environment (Environmental Mastery), has a purpose in life (Life Purpose), and can develop its potential or personal development (Self-Growth).

The results of the distribution of the average score of the six components of Psychological Well-Being found that the component of Positive Relationship with Other People became the most dominant component among the other components. Components of Positive Relationships with Other People are a warm and trusting interpersonal relationship in dealing with others, strong empathy and affection for all humans, and the ability to have greater love, more profound friendship, intense intimacy, understanding giving, and acceptance in a relationship. Of the two indicators in the component, both have scores above the average score. This means that prospective counselors have the ability and strength in terms of establishing relationships with other people and in terms of giving and receiving support from others. The ability to develop relationships with other people can prevent prospective counselors from feeling lonely. This is in line with research by Halim and Dariyo (2016) which stated that there is a negative relationship between Psychological Well-Being and loneliness in overseas students studying in University. This statement proves that Psychological Well-Being can prevent students from feeling lonely (Situmorang, 2022a).

Then, the second component that has a score above the average score is the Self-Growth component. Self-Growth is the ability of individuals to develop their potential to grow and develop personally (Situmorang, 2022b). The indicators in the Self-Growth component show that both have scores above the average score. These two indicators include an open attitude to new experiences and knowledge, as well as developing one's own potential. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the prospective counselors in the class of 2017–2020 are aware of the changes and growth that occur within them. That way, they will give a positive and open response to environmental changes that occur and make them grow.

The component that has the lowest score is the component of Independence. According to Ryff (in Savitri & Listiyandini, 2017), Independence is an individual's ability to determine their own life with full self-confidence and behave according to the individual's own value standards. Individuals who have a high level of Independence have the character of not showing dependence on others, able to withstand social pressures to think and act in certain ways, able to regulate their own behavior and judge it by personal standards. In both indicators in the Independence component, prospective counselors get scores below the average score, namely in terms of Expressing Opinions and Doing Things without Being Directed by Others. This means that prospective counselors in the class of 2017–2020 are still not fully capable of not depending on others, and relying on the judgment of others in making important decisions.

Conclusion and Limitations

Psychological Well-Being of active students as prospective counselors is included in the high-level classification, which is 84%. The number of prospective counselors included in the high classification was, as many as, 37 students, and the remaining seven students were included in the medium classification with a percentage of 16%. The results of the classification of the variable level of Psychological Well-Being in each class, namely in the 2017 class (eight students) are included in the high classification, which is 100%. The class of 2018 is included in two classifications, namely a high score of 80% (four students) and a moderate score of 20% (one student). The class of 2019 is included in two classifications, namely a high score of 77% (17 students) and a medium score of 23% (five students). Then, the class of 2020 is also included in two classifications, namely a high score of 89% (eight students) and a low score of 11% (one student). Based on the distributor's results, the average score of the Psychological Well-Being component in each prospective counselors class shows that the components of Positive Relationship with Other People and components of Self-Growth have scores above the total average score, namely 187.64 and 177.5. The authors hope that all students as prospective counselors are able to make efforts to improve their Psychological Well-Being so that they can build a positive attitude as prospective counselors in the future. On the other hand, this was a very limited study of a small “n” that suggests the need for a more extensive investigation to determine both validity and generalization.

Suggestions

It is crucial to widen the specific methods that experts in the disciplines of education, pastoral care, and counseling will tackle this issue in light of the findings of this research. For these specialists to employ their expertise and model of intervention, there needs to be something exceptional, especially for prospective counselors who are experiencing low Psychological Well-Being.

Implications

The findings of this study have important consequences for how Psychological Well-Being is seen in the educational setting, particularly for aspiring counselors in the future. By utilizing the findings of this study, educational policymakers, teachers, and pastoral counselors can hopefully continue to uphold faith or religious ideals for young generation (Mamahit & Situmorang, 2022), thereby enhancing their Psychological Well-Being.

Direction of Future Research

The findings of this study can serve as a guide for future, more sophisticated research. It is crucial to choose the course of future research on this subject at diverse Faith-Based Educational Institutions so that we may all work together to solve difficulties. Additionally, there is still no specific solution for this issue of poor Psychological Well-Being that has been demonstrated to be efficient in clinical and pastoral care. Therefore, it is crucial to do additional research to determine what form of intervention will be most effective in solving this issue.