?
Digitalization of the Social Environment: University Students’ Preferences for Online and Offline Mental Health Counselling
The rapid growth of technologies leads to the digitalization of various spheres of our life including development of remote forms of support and assistance in the field of mental health (telepsychology, telepsychiatry). This process goes along with the digitalization of all education process and extracurricular activities. To what extent the university student’s acceptability the online forms of mental health counseling in university environment and what contributes to this attitude remains unclear. This paper surveys the association between students’ attitudes towards seeking mental health services in the online form and the severity of mental health symptoms and preference for an online learning format. Based on survey data from 1,343 Russian university students we explored factors of associated with students’ intentions to seek mental health services in the online form. Despite the relatively small personal experience of receiving psychological support (33.9 %), students overall have a positive attitude to such assistant (75.4 %). Students prefer face-to-face psychological consultations (45.8 %) with University-based specialists to online consultations (11.1 %). The preference to continue studying online or in a mixed format is associated with readiness to seek online psychological help (p=0.000). Technical difficulties are discouraging students from choosing online mental health care (p=0.001). Mental health symptoms had no significant association with a preference to seek online psychological counseling format. Most students have never used psychological services. Nevertheless, they demonstrate high willingness to seek psychological help if problems arise. The attractiveness of the online format of study is associated with the preference of the online format of psychological assistance. Technical difficulties pose barriers to students’ willingness to seek help in this format. Female students are generally more willing to seek online psychological help at the University-based service.