Asian Journal of Sociological Research

The study investigated the relationship between awfulizing irrational beliefs and stress among orphaned students in public secondary schools. Concurrent triangulation design was adopted. From a target population of 3,842 orphans in secondary schools in the sub-county, 350 were included in the study using simple random sampling together with 15 principals and 15 Guidance and Counseling teachers who were obtained through purposive sampling. Piloting was done among 20 orphans in schools that were out of the study to assess the reliability of the research instruments. Questionnaires and Focus Group Discussions were used to collect data from orphaned students while face-to-face interviews were used to collect data from Principals and Guidance and Counseling teachers. The reliability of questionnaires was established using Cronbach’s alpha values ranging from a low value of 0.672 (irrational beliefs awfulizing).  Inferential statistics from quantitative data was analyzed using Pearson’s Product Correlation and Regression Analysis with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. Qualitative data from the interviews and Focus Group Discussions were analyzed thematically. There was a statistically significant, but a weak correlation (r=243, N=314, p<0.5) between awfulizing and stress levels among orphaned students. The model summary reveals that the level of irrational belief for awfulizing accounted for 5.9%, as signified by coefficient R²=.059, of the variation in students’ stress levels. The school counselors should guide students on how to identify the irrational beliefs, self-deillogical, and absolutist, and to forcefully and emotionally dispute them and replace them with more rational and self-helping ones.