Investigating College Students’ Intentions to Seek Online Counseling Services

ABSTRACT

The prevalence and severity of mental health issues among students have been increasingly talked about on campuses in recent years. The Internet has rapidly developed to deliver information and facilitate online communication, which creates online counseling to meet the mental health needs of college students. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study examines college students’ intentions to seek both face-to-face and online counseling. An online survey was conducted with 440 college students. Results suggest that subjective norms, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control predicted participants’ intentions to seek counseling. Although face-to-face counseling was generally seen as most appealing, this effect was moderated by different levels of self-stigma, stigma by close others, and communication competence, such that higher self-stigma, stigma by close others, and lower communication competence made face-to-face counseling less attractive compared to online counseling.

KEYWORDS:

• Online counseling
• face-to-face counseling
• stigma
• communication competence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The attention check inserted in survey was “I did NOT pay any attention to this survey, please do NOT use my data.”

2. H3 showed a significant Quadratic trend, F (27, 412) = 1.53, p <. 05, η² =.09.

3. H4 showed a significant Cubic trend, F (57, 382) = 1.44, p <. 05, η² =.18.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xiaojing (Romy) Wang

Xiaojing (Romy) Wang is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland. She is interested in investigating the roles of communication competence and communication channels on influencing individuals’ mental health. Her research also focuses on the positive effects of intergroup and intercultural contact in communication processes.

Nick Joyce

Nick Joyce (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at University of Maryland. He is interested in the communicative and psychological processes underlying intercultural relationships. He approaches these topics using social scientific methodologies.

Kang Namkoong

Kang Namkoong (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at University of Maryland. His research focuses on the interrelationships between emerging media and health communication, with areas of focus including web- and mobile-based eHealth system effects, cancer communications, health promotion, occupational health and safety, and nutrition education.