British and Indian attitudes toward ‘Western’ counselling: A quantitative comparative study

Abstract

This study compared the attitudes towards ‘Western’ counselling and counselling services of Indians living in the United Kingdom for more than 10 years with British citizens of white origin and Indians living in India. Overall, 162 participants took part in the study, 49 were Indians living in India (24 men and 25 women, mean age = 20.94, SD = 2.16), 53 were Indians living in the United Kingdom (24 men and 29 women, mean age = 23.55, SD = 4.04) and 60 were British citizens of white origin (30 men and 30 women, mean age = 29.12, SD = 10.93). All Indian participants were fluent in English. Participants completed a 12-item attitude questionnaire, based on the Likert scale rating ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree with the statements, together with questions on awareness of counselling services and its significance and sources for seeking help and finding information about counselling. Overall Indians in the United Kingdom seem to have the more favourable views towards Western counselling compared to the Indians in India, and even British participants. However, there was a substantial gender difference with Indian men in the United Kingdom being more favourable than Indian women in the United Kingdom. Overall, more positive attitudes towards counselling were reported from participants who had previous experience of counselling. Furthermore, Indians in India seemed to show less awareness of Western counselling practices than the other two groups of participants. Finally, it was found that most Indians in India and British participants would seek help first from family members only rather than other sources, whilst UK Indians are more likely to ask a friend for help. The internet seems to be a more popular source for finding information on counselling services for the British participants, whilst social interactions are seen as a more dominant source for Indians in the United Kingdom and in India.