Receiving Online Psychological Counseling and its Causes: A Structural Equation Model

Abstract

In this study, it is aimed at measuring the university students’ behaviors of receiving online counseling services and determining the causes which have a causal relationship with these behaviors. University students’ behaviors of receiving online counseling services and the causes of those behaviors are investigated through structural equation model based on Theory of Planned Behavior. In this study, four different data collection tools were developed to measure subjective norm about the online counseling, perceived behavioral control, intention and behavior. The attitude towards online counseling was measured using Online Counseling Attitude Scale, which was developed by Rochlen et al. (Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development 37(2):95, 2004) and adapted into Turkish by Demirci et al. (International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies 1(1):15–22, 2014). Internet anxiety was measured using Internet Anxiety Scale, which was developed by Joiner et al. (Computers in Human Behavior 23(3):1408–1420, 2007) and adapted into Turkish by Akin (2012). The data of this study were collected from participants in two steps. In the first step which is the development of the scale, the data were collected from 150 students studying at faculty of education of a university in Central Black Sea Region during 2014–2015 academic year. In the second step which is the testing of the proposed model, the data were collected from a total of 480 students [319 (66.46%) female, 161 (33.54%) male] studying at faculty of education of the same university, but they are different from the participants in the first step. According the results, the proposed model estimated the variance on the intention and behavior of receiving online counseling. The variance on the intention of receiving online counseling was affected by the internet anxiety most. In contrast with the argument of TPB, perceived behavioral control has no impact on intention, but has a direct and significant impact on behavior.