Abstract:

Abstract With the COVID-19 pandemic, people have become inclined to seek online counseling help in addition to face-to-face counseling. For individuals who need mental health services, social-physical isolation and quarantine decisions have rendered online counseling a necessity rather than an option. In this process, individuals needing mental health services may avoid seeking help due to their self-concealment tendencies or inadequate self-perceived social support. The present research explores whether online and face-to-face counseling are predicted by self-concealment level, multidimensional perceived social support, age, gender, and previous experience with face-to-face/online counseling. The study group comprises 508 adults aged 18 or above living in Turkey. The data were collected with the help of "Online and Face-to-Face Counseling Attitudes Scale", “Self-Concealment Scale”, “Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support”, and a “Personal Information Form”. Data analysis was based on Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis. The results demonstrate that attitudes toward online counseling are predicted by self-concealment, perceived social support, age, and previous experience of online counseling. The findings also show that attitudes toward face-to-face counseling are predicted by self-concealment, perceived social support, gender, and previous experience with online and face-to-face counseling.

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