Predictors of Attitudes towards Psychological Counseling among Lebanese College Students

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of social stigma, self-stigma, and willingness to self-disclose personal distress on attitudes towards psychological counseling among Lebanese college students. One hundred twenty-five participants enrolled in an introductory psychology course were surveyed. Questionnaire packets included questions pertaining to demographic characteristics and four scales assessing attitudes towards counseling, social stigma, self-stigma, and self-disclosure. Contrary to previous findings in the literature, our study found that students expressed favorable attitudes towards counseling. Results also indicated that social stigma and self-stigma were negatively correlated with attitudes towards counseling, whereas comfort with self-disclosure had no relationship with attitudes showing inconsistency with past reviews. Among the three factors hypothesized to impact attitudes towards counseling, only self-stigma had significant predictive power. The results and limitations of the study are discussed, and several implications and future directions for further research are identified.