A Comparative Study Of College Counseling Preferences: Face-To-Face Vs. Online Counseling
Main Article Content
Abstract
Two years ago, the sudden transition to online education mandated a transformation of counseling services into remote work. This non-experimental quantitative research study was conducted to examine college students’ preferences and attitudes toward counseling services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and investigate the continuation of receiving online counseling sessions based on the attitude toward face-to-face counseling. A sample of 416 college students was surveyed using the Face-to-Face Counseling Attitudes Scale (FCAS) and the Online Counseling Attitudes Scale (OCAS) (Rochlen et al., 2004). The results showed that higher education students in the UAE have positive attitudes towards both face-to-face and online counseling, with a higher preference for face-to-face counseling over online one. In addition, results showed that online counseling and face-to-face counseling are positively related and students’ attitudes towards face-to-face can predict the continuation of receiving the counseling services with 19% attribution to attitudes towards the face–to–face counseling.