The Attitude Towards Online Counselling in Comparison to Face-To-Face Counselling Among United Arab Emirates Citizens

Abstract

This research compares United Arab Emirates (UAE) citizen’s attitudes toward online and face-to-face counseling. The aim of this research is to get a better understanding on UAE citizen’s attitudes toward seeking either online or face-to-face counseling. After getting the ethical approval from the Scientific Research Ethics Committee, the use of both qualitative and quantitative research, which will include sharing the questionnaire online with the participants, as well as a focus group that included 8 participants. The research covered 180 participants who completed the socio-demographic form, The Online Counseling Attitude Scale (OCAS), and the Face-to-Face Counseling Attitude Scale (FFAS). Convenient sampling was used to secure replies from the participants and the results of this research were obtained using SPSS software.  Furthermore, it has been indicated that UAE citizens favor online counseling. However, there is a marginal difference in comparison to face-to-face counseling. With that being said, more investigation is required. To address and understand whether the digital solution will act as an alternative to face-to-face counseling. This is mainly because, online counseling can act as a functional source for seeking mental health services due to its easy accessibility.