Influence of Depression on the Academic Achievement of Undergraduate Students of Federal College of Education, Pankshin, Plateau State: Counselling Implications

The study investigated Influence of Depression on the Academic Achievement of Undergraduate Students of Federal College of Education, Pankshin, Plateau State: Counselling Implications. It raised four objectives and four research questions as well as five hypotheses guided the study. The research design adopted for the study was the Survey Design. The population of the study was the entire undergraduate students in the Department of School of Education, Federal College of Education, Pankshin whose number is while the sample was 196. The instrument used for the study was a structured questioned self-developed by the researcher; validated by experts in counselling psychology and test and measurement and Educational Psychology, University of Jos with a reliability coefficient of 0.80. The findings revealed that students have been having sleep disturbances, including waking up in the night, and not being able to concentrate in academic activities and that they do get tired and lack energy in small academic tasks; most students have faced depression due to stressful experience of trying to balance social life and class work, uncertainty about money, leaving their family, poor sleep habit, alcohol and drug abuse, eating disorder and socialization problems. Counselling through the provisions of options of developing coping skills could go a long way to help depressed individuals; that counsellors during counselling sessions offer options which are therapeutic in nature, such as regular exercise, getting enough sleep and spending quality time with people: friends, family members, to mention a few which could go a long way to help depressed people (students) overcome their depression. Recommendations were drawn and suggestions for further study.