Perception of Undergraduates on Efficacy of Cyber Counseling Platforms in Managing Mental Health in a Distressed Nigerian Economy

This study, guided by six research questions and six hypotheses, adopted cross sectional survey research design to investigate the influence of socio-demographic variables on the perception of undergraduates toward the efficacy of cyber counseling platforms in managing mental health. The population of the study included 65,900 undergraduates in the federal and state-owned universities in Cross River State, Nigeria. A sample of 800 students was selected through stratified and simple random sampling techniques. An instrument entitled “Questionnaire on Perceptions towards Cyber Counseling Platforms” (QPCCP) was designed by the researchers for data gathering. The instrument was validated, and had a Cronbach alpha reliability of 0.79. The generated data was analyzed using mean, standard deviation, population t-test, independent t-test, ANOVA and Scheffe’s post hoc test. The results of the study indicated that sex, year of study, area of discipline and age of the students had significant influence, while ownership of university showed no significant influence, on the perception of undergraduates toward cyber counseling. It was therefore recommended, amongst others, that considering that undergraduates have positive perception toward cyber counseling, counselors should create awareness, encourage and guide students to utilize cyber counseling platforms in attending to their mental counseling needs.