Personality and Gender as Predictors of Online Counseling Use

ABSTRACT Extraversion, neuroticism, and gender as predictors of online counseling help-seeking behavior were investigated. A total of 176 college student participants, 30 men and 146 women, were given the NEO-PIR and ATSPPH-S that assessed, respectively, their personalities and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help through different modes: traditional face-to-face counseling, video-conferencing, e-mail, instant text message, and microphone. Results were analyzed using MANOVA and MANCOVA. Subjects were grouped by scores on personality variables: low, medium, and high. Findings suggest that attitudes toward different modes of seeking counseling were associated primarily with gender and extraversion but not with neuroticism.