Developing scale of attitudes toward internet psychological support

Abstract

Aim of the studyThe interest in remote psychological services is currently increasing. Changing the way psychological help is provided requires considering new issues, including patients’ attitudes toward this form of help. The aim of the study was to construct and determine the psychometric properties of a tool for assessing attitudes toward psychological help provided via the Internet among healthy and clinical group.Subject or material and methods154 items were selected from the original pool of 330 items. A pilot study was carried out on a group of 100 students (60% females, MAge = 23.3). The final version of the tool included 43 items whose discriminant power is higher than 0.5. Cronbach’s α for the final version of the tool was .975. 10 scales were distinguished and a reliability test (α = .966) was carried out on 100 healthy people.ResultsAs a result of a factor analysis performed on the data obtained from a study of healthy people (N = 100; 74% females; MAge = 29.5) and clinical group (N = 466; 54% females; MAge = 40.6), a final three-factor structure of the tool with appropriate reliability and differential validity was obtained.DiscussionThe final version of the SPWPPO-2 questionnaire consists of 43 items. A tool that meets the criteria of psychometric goodness was obtained. It can be used in research on general and clinical populations and also in practice.ConclusionsThe tool is useful in research and clinical areas. It can be used by mental health professionals to assess attitudes toward online psychological support for patients and potential patients.