TY - JOUR
T1 - The effectiveness of online counseling for university students in Turkey
T2 - A non-randomized controlled trial
AU - Zeren, Serife Gonca
AU - Erus, Seher Merve
AU - Amanvermez, Yagmur
AU - Genc, Arzu Buyruk
AU - Yilmaz, Mihriban Betul
AU - Duy, Baki
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s). Open Access - This article is under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
PY - 2020/4
Y1 - 2020/4
N2 - Online counseling is a mental health intervention between the counselee and the counselor using digital technologies computers or smartphones. A growing number of counselors have been providing counseling via the Internet. However, there are mixed findings regarding the effectiveness of online counseling when compared traditional face-to-face counseling and other modalities. Thus, the main purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of online individual counseling compared to face-to-face counseling, and a control group regarding subjective well-being. To that end, a total of 60 college students were assigned to one of the three groups (21 online, 24 face-to-face, and 15 control). The instruments of the study were the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Brief Symptom Inventory. In order to examine the effectiveness of online counseling comparing to face-to-face counseling and control group, Mixed design (split-plot) ANOVA was employed. The findings of mixed ANOVA revealed that there was no significant interaction effect for the subjective well-being of the participants in different groups indicating that the three groups did not differ regarding subjective well-being scores measured over three times (pre-test, post-test, and follow-up). Nevertheless, the main effect for the group was significant indicating that the scores of the participants in the face-to-face counseling group regarding positive and negative affect changed significantly. Findings and implications were discussed regarding the relevant literature and some suggestions were offered.
AB - Online counseling is a mental health intervention between the counselee and the counselor using digital technologies computers or smartphones. A growing number of counselors have been providing counseling via the Internet. However, there are mixed findings regarding the effectiveness of online counseling when compared traditional face-to-face counseling and other modalities. Thus, the main purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of online individual counseling compared to face-to-face counseling, and a control group regarding subjective well-being. To that end, a total of 60 college students were assigned to one of the three groups (21 online, 24 face-to-face, and 15 control). The instruments of the study were the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Brief Symptom Inventory. In order to examine the effectiveness of online counseling comparing to face-to-face counseling and control group, Mixed design (split-plot) ANOVA was employed. The findings of mixed ANOVA revealed that there was no significant interaction effect for the subjective well-being of the participants in different groups indicating that the three groups did not differ regarding subjective well-being scores measured over three times (pre-test, post-test, and follow-up). Nevertheless, the main effect for the group was significant indicating that the scores of the participants in the face-to-face counseling group regarding positive and negative affect changed significantly. Findings and implications were discussed regarding the relevant literature and some suggestions were offered.
KW - Face-to-face counseling
KW - Life satisfaction
KW - Negative affect
KW - Online counseling
KW - Positive
KW - Subjective well-being
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084677457&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.12973/eu-jer.9.2.825
DO - 10.12973/eu-jer.9.2.825
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85084677457
SN - 2165-8714
VL - 9
SP - 825
EP - 834
JO - European Journal of Educational Research
JF - European Journal of Educational Research
IS - 2
ER -